And We Shall Overcome
by MB18932
Summary: In an alternate universe, where the galaxy read the writing on the wall, a much more militerized galaxy prepares for the Reaper invasion. But are they prepared enough?
1. Chapter 1

**And We Shall Overcome**

**A.N. This is a tale starting around the time of Mass Effect 3's beginning. In this tale, the Citadel Council DID heed Shepard's warning about the Reapers at the end of the original Mass Effect, and by this point the galaxy is militarized to a point that would make most military dictators blush. This was not an attempt to avoid political BS, but rather to avoid the game's unspeakably bad conclusion. The events of Mass Effect 2 are essentially unchanged. **

John Shepard stood by the window of his apartment, looking out over the metropolis of Vancouver. This was, in fact, his home city. His early years had been spent with the Reds, a petty gang that, when he had joined, had held a very small portion of the lowest levels of the city. During those days, the Reds had simply been a group of desperate people, the same as the orphaned Shepard, who had banded together for survival in the criminal underworld of Earth's major cities.

However, in the years approaching John's 18th birthday, that had changed; the Reds had begun gaining territory and influence, not just in Vancouver, but in cities across the Earth's western hemisphere. They were running drugs and illegal weapons, they slaughtering smaller gangs for kicks, and were pressuring ordinary citizens for protection money.

They had become the menace that the gang had originally been formed to protect itself from, and Sheppard was disgusted with it.

So, the minute he turned eighteen, Shepard had packed his belongings, nailed an FU message to the gang leaders to his apartment door, and signed on with the Systems Alliance Marine Corps.

And the rest, single-handedly stopping the Skyllian Blitz, becoming the first human Specter, tracking down Saren, stopping the Reaper Sovereign, and obliterating the Collectors, was history.

A small movement on a nearby skyscraper's rooftop brought him out of his reminiscing. A young boy, no more than six or seven years old, ran around atop the building, a model of an Alliance fighter in his outstretched hand, laughing, and clearly having a wonderful time. Shepard sighed, a sad smile on his face. War was, to a child, just another grand adventure to be had. Living his own childhood in gangland, followed by over a decade in the N7 marines, had taught him the truth.

War, to quote an old Earth general, was HELL.

Hearing a beeping sound coming from his information pad, Shepard picked it up, and opened the new message. It said that the one of the Alliance's new dreadnought-class warships, the SSV McKinley, had just finished construction, in a record three months.

Shepard smiled grimly. The governments that answered to Citadel Council authority, namely humans, turians, asari, salarians, elcor, volus, hanar, and drell, had, after his death while hunting for rouge geth, uncovered further evidence of the Reapers, ancient, sentient warships that wiped out all sufficiently advanced organic life every 50,000 years, including several derelict Reaper ships that were millions, and in one case a billion, years old. This, combined with the Reaper called Sovereign's attack on the Citadel, was enough to finally convince the governments of the galaxy that the Reapers were a real threat.

In the two years it took Cerberus, a human-supremacist terrorist group, to rebuild and revive him, the galaxy had undergone mass militarization to prepare for the synthetic onslaught. The Treaty of Farixen, which limited the number of dreadnought-class vessels allowed to each species, was repelled, and all Citadel species had expanded their fleets unhindered. By the time Shepard had destroyed the Collector base and broken ties with Cerberus, the Turian Hierarchy had 112 dreadnoughts, the asari 96, the salarians 81, the Alliance 84, with seven more under construction, and the volus, hanar, and elcor each had one. In addition to battleships, each race had also constructed dozens of carriers, hundreds of cruisers and frigates, and thousands of fighters. And that was just the naval forces.

The ground forces of the combined ground armies of Council Space numbered just over 8.5 billion active duty soldiers, with a further 14 in reserve; a full fifteen percent of the total population of Council Space was under arms. The majority of the rank-and-file infantry came from the Turian Hierarchy, while the remaining races provided more elite units, notably the asari commandos and salarian STG. Humanity, while smaller in number than the other races of the galaxy, had still devoted considerable numbers to the build up; 2 of Earth's 11.4 billion people were already off planet, in various Alliance postings.

Almost all manufacturing, mining, and distribution companies across all governments had been nationalized, none-military supplies had been rationed, and every asteroid and uninhabitable planet had been strip mined to fuel the war effort, though life-bearing and habitable worlds were left alone for future colonization, provided the civilizations of the galaxy were victorious.

The call to arms was not only in the sheer numbers of the armed forces, but also in advances in military technology. The Thanix Cannon, developed by the turian military and first used by Commander Shepard's ship, the Normandy SR2, against the collectors, had quickly replaced mass accelerator guns on most warships. In addition, the Thanix technology had been harnessed to improve surface artillery. Combined with improved kinetic barriers and heat dispersal systems, the fleets of the Citadel races could now hit harder, fight longer, and take more damage.

And they would need every advantage they could come up with against the Reapers.

Hearing a soft sigh, Shepard looked up, and smiled. Lying on his bed was his girlfriend, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. She was a quarian, a race that had been driven from its home world after their robotic labor force, called the geth, had achieved sentience and had won the resulting war. For the next three centuries, her people had wandered the galaxy in a massive flotilla called The Migrant Fleet, just trying to survive.

Tali and Shepard had met at the beginning of his hunt for Seran; Tali had uncovered evidence that proved that the Spectre had gone rogue. Ever since then, she had always supported Shepard, even during his brief time working with Cerberus. And, during their campaign against the collectors, their friendship had blossomed into love, and the two had become a couple. Last night had been the first time they had seen each other for several weeks; Shepard was essentially under house arrest, with very limited visitor time, and Tali had recently been elected to a position as Admiral.

Shepard had done everything he could to assist her people since they had met. About a year ago, the Alliance found a habitable planet within its borders, but was unable to launch colonization efforts because the life forms of the planet had DNA formed from dextro-amino acids, which were incompatible with human systems, as Earth's life was formed from levo-amino acids. With this in mind, Shepard had put forward the suggestion, both to Tali and the Alliance, that the world be given to the quarians. The Alliance, knowing that the Migrant Fleet contained 50,000 ships, all of which had some level of armament, had agreed almost immediately, the only nay-sayers being those with racist views towards the quarians; they were quickly silenced.

The debate was far more volatile and drawn out with the Migrant Fleet. While the Conclave, the civilian government, agreed to the arrangement by a very slim margin, the Admiralty Board, the quarian military leaders, was in deadlock for a long time. Tali and Admiral Zaal'Korris, the representative of the civilian ships, both pushed for accepting the colony offer, while Admirals Han'Garrel and Daro'Xen, the former the leader of the Fleet's heavy warships, supported launching an assault on the geth to reclaim the quarian home world, Rannoch. Admiral Shala'Raan, leader of the Flotilla's scouting vessels and fighters, was indecisive on the matter.

Eventually, Zaal'Korris had lost all patience with his opponents, and declared that if they insisted on the counter-productive war with the geth, than the civilian ships would leave the flotilla and accept the Alliances deal independently. As these ships contained the Fleet's farmers, miners, and other support structures, their leaving would mean disaster for the other sections of the fleet. This bombshell had finally persuaded Shala'Raan to side with Zaal'Korris and Tali. Since then, the quarians had established themselves on their new home, which had been named Tikkun, after the star Rannoch orbited, and the Migrant Fleet had been outfitted with the weapons and systems necessary to combat the Reapers, boosting the total military strength of the galactic armada by tens of thousands of ships.

Coming back to the present, John walked over to his lover, sat down on the side of the bed, and whispered, "Awake yet, dear?"

Tali groaned, and then blinked rapidly, coming up to the sitting position. "Keelah," she said, "I thought I said to wake me up at eight, Shepard."

"It IS eight, Tali," Shepard smirked.

"My internal clock disagrees with you," the quarian women muttered. Pushing the blankets off of her, she stood up, saying, "I need to go call Shala; I told her I would send a report on what was going on Earth to Nova Rannoch." She began walking toward the apartment's communication consul, only to be stopped as Shepard locked an arm around her waist.

"How about," he whispered in her ear, "we do something ELSE."

"Sheppard, stop it; the admirals will be concerned if I don't report on time."

John just smiled even more widely. "I'm sure they will understand. You know how humans love to…drag things out."

"John, stop it," Tali complained, though with no real determination in her voice.

Knowing he had won, John wrapped his other arm around her chest, resting his hand on her opposite shoulder, and began kissing her on the side of the neck. Just as Tali began reaching to return the embrace, however, they both heard the doorbell ring.

Lowering his head, John whispered, "Damn it." Then, he turned around, and called, "Come in."

The door parted, and through the entrance stepped an enormous bear of a man; Lieutenant James Vega, Alliance Marine, and Shepard's glorified jail man. While he was not receptive to the role, Shepard liked Vega personally; he reminded him of himself when he had first joined the marines, all gung-ho and ready to fight, but fully aware of what war really was. It was a deadly combination.

Snapping a salute, Vega said, "Commander."

"You're not supposed to call me that anymore, James," Sheppard said.

Smirking slightly, James replied, "I'm not supposed to salute you either." Immediately becoming serious again, he continued. "We've gotta go. The defense committee wants to speak with you."

"Sounds important," John commented. He and Tali followed the lieutenant out the door, discovering the building was abuzz with activity; Alliance naval personnel and marines ran around everywhere, trading words, data pads, and reports.

Catching up with James, John asked, "What's going on?"

"Couldn't say," Vega replied. "Was just told they needed you."

The trio skidded to a halt as a man in an admiral's uniform approached them. It was Admiral Anderson, formerly humanity's first Councilor, and Shepard's old commanding officer and mentor. James Vega immediately saluted; as Tali and Sheppard were both considered civilians, they did not perform the gesture, though Shepard had to stop his arm from rising automatically.

"Admiral," Shepard said.

Anderson reached out and shook John's hand, while the group continued on their way. "You look good, Shepard," the man said. "Maybe a little soft around the edges," he added, patting John on the stomach. "How have you been holding up since being relieved from duty?"

"It's almost tolerable," John replied mockingly. "Once you get used to the hot food, soft beds, and beautiful quarians thereupon."

His cheek earned him a punch from Tali.

Anderson chuckled. "Don't worry; we'll get it sorted out."

"What's going on," John asked. "Why is everyone in such a hurry?"

"Admiral Hackett's mobilizing the fleets," Anderson explained. "I'm guessing the news has already reached Alliance Command; something BIG is headed our way."

Shepard stopped at the foot of stairway they were about to climb, dread clutching his heart. "The Reapers," he asked.

"We don't know," was Anderson's reply.

"Who else COULD it be?!"

"If I knew that…."

John's eyes narrowed. "Do you think that we're ready for them?"

Anderson's mouth narrowed into a thin line. "I don't think we CAN be ready for them. But I think we're as prepared as we'll ever be. Come on; we need to get to the committee." With that, the group continued up the stairway.

"Unless your plan is to talk the Reapers to death, this committee is a waste of time," John snapped. He had always hated politics, waiting around and talking when they could be DOING something.

"They're just scarred," Anderson said, trying to placate his protégé. "None of them have seen what you've seen. You've faced down a Reaper. Hell, you SPOKE with one, and then blew the damn thing up! You know more about this enemy than anyone."

"Is that why they grounded me," Shepard snapped. "Took away my ship?"

Anderson stopped dead, looked Shepard in the face, and snapped, "You KNOW that's not true. When you destroyed the batarian relay, hundreds of thousands of batarians died."

"It was that or let the Reapers walk through our back door," Shepard shot back. The incident, though horrible to him, was unavoidable, and John stood by his decision.

"I know that Sheppard. And so does the committee," Anderson said. "If it wasn't for that, you'd have been court-martialed, and executed as a war criminal."

"Not if I could help it," Tali muttered under her breath.

"Let's go," Anderson finally said. "We're wasting time."

Passing through a set of double doors, the group came up to a desk in the fore room for the defense committee's chambers. "Admiral," an officer said. "They're expecting you two."

Following the officer, the group walked down the hallway leading toward the meeting room. Halfway down, a familiar soldier came up from the opposite end.

"Anderson," she said. Then, she spotted John. "Shepard," she called.

Spinning around, John looked at her in shock. "Ashley?"

"Lieutenant-Commander," Anderson interrupted. "How did it go in there?"

"I can never tell with them," Shepard's former crewmate, and ex-girlfriend, replied. "I'm just waiting for orders now."

Coming up beside Anderson, John asked, "Lieutenant-Commander?"

"You hadn't heard," Anderson responded.

"No," Shepard said. "I'm a bit out of the loop these days." Stealing a glance out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tali bristle with anger; this was the situation he had been hoping to avoid.

"Sorry, sir," Ashley said. "I didn't mean to keep you out of the loop." She looked at him with a pleading expression. Their last meeting, wherein Ashley had called him a traitor and inform him that she was through with him, had, needless to say, gone badly, and she was still hopeful that she still had a shot with him. Deciding to diffuse this powder keg before it blew, Shepard decided to end the discussion immediately.

"I'm sure you had your reasons," he responded coldly. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have work to do."

And with that he walked past Ashley Williams without another word or backward glance. The footsteps behind him told him that Anderson was accompanying him. Passing through the double doors, he found himself in a room with several communications station at the sides, with a large, curved table at the opposite end, whereupon sat the Alliance's defense committee.

Spotting them, one of the councilors spoke up. "Admiral Anderson. Shepard."

"What is the situation?" Shepard asked.

"We were hoping you would tell us," the councilor replied. One of the lesser officers on the floor passed Shepard a data pad.

"The reports coming in are unlike anything we have ever seen before," one of the other councilors, the only women among them, said. "Whole colonies have gone dark; we have lost contact with everything beyond the Sol Relay."

The first councilor spoke up. "Whatever this is, it is incomprehensibly powerful."

John took one glance at the data pad in his hand, then looked the councilors in their eyes and said, "You have brought me here to confirm what you already know."

He spoke the last part of his declaration to the room at large.

"The Reapers are HERE!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**A.N. Allow me to take a moment to explain a few points brought up by Dark Triad and smashbrawlguy regarding finer details of this work and of the Mass Effect universe. These are valid points, and I appreciate such feedback. **

**1. If the galaxy believes Shepard's warning about the Reapers, why is he still working with Cerberus during the events of ME2? **

**I had Shepard working with them because, while all the governments may be building up for the Reapers in this universe, Cerberus is still hated and despised by pretty much everyone. If someone you knew well and trusted died, then showed up again helping your worst enemy for any purpose, even if the goal was to help people, you would question their motives, nay, you would question whether it really WAS them at all. It wouldn't be clear who Shepard really stood with until he blew up the Collector base, and gave TIM the finger. **

**2. Why is the army so enormous? The population you have put forward doesn't come close to matching up with population figures for the worlds we have seen in the series. **

**It is stated several times throughout the series that Shepard is working to save trillions of lives. Perhaps this was an exaggeration, but I took it to be fact. Also, we have seen many star systems in Mass Effect, but the galaxy contains millions upon millions upon millions of stars, all with their own system of planets. It is perfectly believable that there are many other colonies that we never set foot on. **

**3. Bioware really screwed up the Illusive Man; he was a wonderful villain and they wasted his potential. **

**I agree. I think that Cerberus's role in ME3 was not as great as it could have been. Bioware had the perfect opportunity to create a massive three-way battle royale, but instead just made Cerberus a Reaper puppet. In "And We Shall Overcome", Cerberus will not be looking for a way to control the Reapers, and thus will not be indoctrinated, but they will still make giant asses of themselves. More details to follow. **

**4. If everyone is building up for Reaper attacks, why hasn't the Crucible been built, or even discovered, yet?**

**The Crucible will not even exist in this tale. In addition to the BS with the Catalyst A.I., I feel that having a super weapon that will destroy the Reapers in one blow is anti-climactic. The Reapers are beings of immense power and military might that have been destroying and harvesting organic civilizations for billions of years. It should be a long, hard fought campaign to defeat them, not one huge battle to deploy an "anti-Reaper nuke". Liara will still find something in the Mars archives to help even the odds, but this war will be a long, hard slog through the deepest, stickiest, widest mud puddle imaginable. **

**5. On the Spectre terminal, it says that the strain of the war will cause the galactic economy to collapse in a year's time. How did the galaxy sustain war preparation for two? **

**Because the war was not on yet. I feel that a great deal of the economic slowdown described in that message was due to the fear of the Reaper invasion being on; whole colonies obliterated, refugees pouring in by the millions. None of that was happening during the two year build-up. People KNEW about the Reapers, yes, but knowing of them and seeing them in action are two entirely different things. **

oo-00-oo

The instant he said those words, everyone went silent and turned to stare at him. A palpable sense of dread and terror settle on the room; what little time they had to prepare for this invasion was gone. The mother of all wars had begun.

The female councilor was the first to recover. "Then….. how do we stop them?"

"'Stop them'", Shepard repeated. "This isn't about strategy or tactics. This is about _survival._"

He walked towards the table, continuing his appraisal of their dismal situation. "The Reapers are more advanced than we are. More powerful. More intelligent. They don't fear us. And they will NEVER take pity on us!"

"But…" the female councilor stammered, "there must be some way to fight them off. We can't let them strike Earth."

"If the Reapers are here, and make no mistake, they are here," Shepard said, "then they WILL hit Earth. They will come in force, and will strike down ANYTHING that gets in their way. It is too late to keep them away from this planet. The only thing we can do now is stand together, as one, and fight them with everything we have.

"That's it!" the first councilor hissed, absolute terror plain on his features. "THAT is all you've got for us! You KILLED two of the things."

"Correction," Shepard stated plainly. "I killed a husk of Saren, which caused Sovereign's shields to overload, allowing the Fifth Fleet to finish it off, and I destroyed a partially formed Human-Reaper that was the Reaper equivalent of an embryo. I am afraid if you want some magical strategy to get us out of this mess, there simply isn't one."

Just then, one of the officers on the left side of the room spoke up. "Admiral Anderson, we've just lost contact with Luna Base!"

"The moon!" Anderson seemed shocked. "They couldn't be that close already."

"How did they get past our defenses?" the female councilor asked no one in particular.

"Sir," the same officer shouted, "UK Headquarters has a visual." A large screen turned on near the ceiling turned on, at first showing nothing but static. Every pair of eyes was focused on that one area.

Then, an image of an Alliance soldier materialized. The sound of battle blasted from the speakers. The soldier said something to the camera, but the noise drowned out whatever he was attempting to say. Suddenly, the deep, terrifying drone of a Reaper silenced all the battle sounds, and an explosion occurred nearby. Immediately, the screen went black, the words 'Signal Loss' emblazoned on it.

An instant latter, a new image appeared on screen. A Reaper, the same size and shape as Sovereign, had landed in London, on the banks of the River Tames. Anti-Air batteries fired streams of rounds at the leviathan, but the small missiles were useless against the dreadnought's kinetic barriers. Then, ruby red beams shot from the Reaper's foreward weapons, destroying the guns firing at it seemingly without effort. With the minor annoyance gone, the monstrosity began obliteration civilian targets.

Then, vengeance arrived in the form of a duo of Thanix rounds, fired from orbit. The streams of molten iron-tungsten-uranium hardened into armor-shearing shells just as they reached their target, slamming into the Reaper's shields. The ship staggered, knocked off balance by the assault. Just as it was beginning to regain its footing, a third round hit it from behind, broke through its battered shields, struck near the top of the vessel, and gutted it. The monster's lights dimmed and it toppled over into the river.

Shepard smiled darkly. "It looks like Admiral Hackett is doing his job quite well."

"But why haven't we HEARD from him?" Anderson whispered.

"What do we do?" the first councilor almost begged.

Frowning, Shepard turned back to the council, pointed at the screen, and proclaimed, "The only thing we can; we fight, or we die!"

The councilors bowed their heads, fear, but for the first time, determination, filling their features.

Then, a very familiar sound filled the room; the sound of a Reaper droning. Standing the councilors turned to look out the ceiling high window. "Oh my god," the female councilor breathed.

Out of the cloud cover, a Reaper descended on the city of Vancouver. Before it even landed, it began firing an energy beam weapon.

Which began moving toward them.

Backing away, Shepard shouted, "MOVE! MOVE!"

It was too late.

The window exploded inward. The councilors and other nearby personnel were killed immediately, and the enormous, heavy table was thrown towards Shepard and Anderson. Running away from the errant furniture, John and Anderson both ducked, and the table sailed over them. Finally, it slammed into the doorway, finally coming to a halt.

Just as Shepard recovered from the first blast, a second sent him flying into the wall. Rolling off a bench and onto the floor, he laid there for a moment, completely dazed and only half conscious. Blinking, he sluggishly tried to regain his bearings.

"Shepard!" he heard someone call, seemingly far in the distance. Lifting his neck, Shepard held a hand up to his aching head. "Shepard!" the far-away voice called again.

Coming up into the sitting position, John heard his name called again. With his hearing back, he realized it was Anderson. The Admiral ran over to the commander and held out his hand, saying, "Come on, get up."

After helping Shepard to his feet, he said, "Here, take this," and placed a sidearm in John's hand. Turning to the gaping hole left by the Reaper's weapon, Anderson placed a finger on his earpiece, and called out, "This is Admiral Anderson. Report in, anyone." He paused, then said, "Lieutenant-Commander Williams, is that you? What's your status?" He paused again, and then finished with, "I can't raise the Normandy. You'll have to contact them. We'll meet you at the landing zone. Anderson out."

By this point, John had reached the ledge on the outside of the building, and could see the extent of the devastation. Already, more Reapers had landed on the city. These metal towers of destruction were larger than most skyscrapers, and they broke down most buildings simply by smashing into them. He could hear the screams of thousands of people as the leviathans ripped the city apart. In the sky overhead, thousands of meteorites falling through the atmosphere, the ruby trails of invading Reapers, and the sapphire streaks of Thanix shells fired by Earth's defensive fleets.

The red ones far outnumbered the blue.

"Come on, Shepard," Anderson called, jogging him out of his trance. "Ashley's headed to the Normandy. They'll pick us up if we can get to the spaceport." Nodding, Johne started walking along the uncomfortably narrow walkway that would eventually lead to the Normandy's dock. Suddenly, a Reaper beam appeared in front of them.

"LOOK OUT!" Anderson cried, just as a nearby skyscraper was gutted. Continuing on, Anderson asked rhetorically, "How do you stop something so powerful?"

Smirking slightly, Shepard answered "Shoot anything enough times, and it is bound to die eventually."

"That includes US, Shepard," Anderson snapped back.

Continuing along the walkway, they reached the adjacent side of the building. Then, they were nearly blown off by a passing Alliance fighter, which was being chased by three Oculus drones. The lead Reaper fighter fired its beam weapon, striking the Alliance craft in is port engine, causing it to spin into a nearby tower. As the Oculi began to return to their parent Reaper, they suddenly came under fire from above. One was destroyed outright, and another severely damaged. The two survivors split off, each pursued by two Alliance interceptors, fighter craft designed to attack other fighters.

After climbing up a ladder and over some ventilation ducts, Anderson again contacted Ashley on the radio. "Lieutenant-Commander, can you read me? I'm patching in Shepard."

His ex's voice came through his earpiece an instant latter. "We're almost to the Normandy. I've got Lieutenant Vega and Tali'Zorah with me, but we're taking heavy fire."

"HUSKS!" Anderson shouted, pointing downward. Following his gesture, John spotted the targets; Husks were humans that had been repurposed by the Reapers. Using giant, collapsible spikes called Dragon's Teeth, the machines slowly removed water and trace minerals from the bodies impaled upon them, and replaced them with cybernetics. Once the process was complete, the empty, mindless carcasses obeyed their Reaper masters without questions, attacking living beings and ripping them apart with their bare hands, without thought for their own self-preservation. The husks they were confronted with now were climbing up the side of the building in front of them, and were not an immediate threat.

Taking aim with their side arms, the duo opened fire on the mechanical zombies. One by one, the mindless cannon fodder of the Reaper armies fell to the distant ground bellow. Pausing for a moment, Shepard altered his weapon to fire incendiary rounds, than continued firing. The super-heated bullets ripped into the husk's partially metal flesh, and set it alight, burning them from the inside out. In short order, the dozen or so enemies were dispatched. Turning, the two fighters jumped down to a lower level of the roof.

And immediately were confronted by half a dozen more husks coming up the side.

John and Anderson immediately opened fire, cutting down three before they made it half-way to them.

Suddenly, a burst of steam sprang out of the pistol, accompanied by an alarm. His weapon was overheated, and he was out of thermal clips. Similar sounds to his right indicated the same was true for Anderson.

Snarling, Shepard tossed his sidearm to his left hand, and braced himself for close combat. The first husk reached him first, reaching out with its twisted arms to rip and tear him. John quickly grabbed the monster by the neck, and smashed the butt of his pistol into the husk's temple. Its head broke like a melon. A crunching, splattering sound nearby told him that a second husk had met a similar fate at the Admiral's hands.

Just then, the last husk lunged at Shepard, who raised his left arm against its chest, trying to keep the beast off of him. The monster howled for his blood.

Reacting without thought, John activated his Omni-Tool, brought out its blade attachment, and drove it into the husk's head, between its eyes. Its body went slack immediately, and when he removed the blade, it collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

As this happened, a familiar droning split the air, and a nearby Reaper fired its beam at their building, and the room before them exploded as the round struck.

With the windows and door smashed, Anderson and Shepard's path was clear. Coming to a door within the building jammed part way open, John placed his back to one side, and pushed with all his might on the other, opening it just enough for Anderson to get through. Just as he was about to go through himself, he heard a sob coming from a open ventilation shaft. Walking over, he bent down to look inside.

Hiding there was the boy he had seen playing earlier. He was pale with fear, and tears streamed down his face.

"Hey," Shepard whispered, trying to calm the boy and avoid detection from any more husks. "Hey, its okay…"

The child shook his head. "Everyone's dying," he cried.

The boy's eyes widened, and he gasped. Turning, Shepard saw a Reaper's leg come down a ways away. Looking back at the vent, he saw the boy back further into the shaft. "Come on," he whispered. "I need to get you someplace safe." Reaching into the vent, he continued, "take my hand."

The boy just shook his head. "You can't help me," he said sadly.

"Shepard!"

John jumped at the sound of Anderson's voice. Turning his head, he saw that the Admiral had forced his way through the door back to him. "Come one," he said, "we have to go."

John looked back into the vent, only to find it empty; the boy had slipped away while he was distracted.

Shaking his head, Shepard followed Anderson back through the door.

Working their way through the next room, which had taken the brunt of the blast, was slow going. Rubble seemed to fill every spare space.

"This is a goddamn mess," Anderson snarled. Shepard knew he wasn't referring to the state of the room. "Every minute these machines are here, thousands of innocent people die. I won't be responsible for it."

Working together, the two shifted pieces of building so that the other could get past, leapfrogging their way to a gaping hole on the other side.

"They hit so fast," Anderson said. "I thought we would have more time."

"We knew they were coming, Anderson," John replied. "And we've been going all out to get ready for them."

"And they still just cut through our defenses," Anderson exclaimed. Just then, a deafening explosion sounded nearby, shaking the building. The next instant, a Reaper fell next to their skyscraper, its lights out and clearly dead.

Smiling, Shepard said, "Doesn't seem all that one-sided to me, Admiral."

"Don't be arrogant, John," Anderson snapped. "Hackett and his fleets can't keep this up forever. The Reaper fleet is thousands strong. Tens of thousands. We need to go to the Citadel, talk with the Council."

"The Citadel," Shepard exclaimed. "The fight is HERE, Anderson!"

"It will be everywhere soon enough," the admiral replied. "And even if it wasn't, there is no way the System's Alliance can stop the Reapers alone. We NEED the Council. They HAVE to help us!"

Having reached the hole in the wall, the two began carefully scooting across an outcropping of the building.

"You sure they'll even bother," Shepard asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Their usual plan of attack is to stick their heads in the sand."

"Maybe," Anderson admitted. "But you're still a Council Spectre, one of their top hand-picked agents. That has to count for something."

Suddenly, another nearby explosion rocked the building causing Shepard to lose his balance and begin to fall forward. Before he plummeted to his doom, though, Anderson reached forward, grabbed him by his shirt, and shoved him back against the building.

Heart pounding from the close call, John breathed, "Thanks. I owe you one."

"More than one, John," Anderson replied gravely.

The meaning was obvious to Shepard; the feeling was very familiar. He had felt it during his pursuit of Saren, and again during his fight with the Collectors.

_Everything depends on me. _

oo-00-00

**WOW! This chapter ended up being a LOT longer than I thought it would be. I'll get to the Mars mission another time. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Coming out into another room on the other end of the skyscraper, John and Anderson found several thermal clips scattered about. Unsure of why they were there, but not ones to question providence, the two grabbed as many as they could fit into their weapons and pockets, and continued out onto another outcropping of the building, which began leading downward towards Vancouver Harbor.

Now much closer to the surface, Shepard spotted a different variety of Reaper. While the Sovereign-class Capital Reapers were around two kilometers in length, the ones he saw now were much, much smaller, around 150 meters long and never more than 200, and had fewer weapons. That did not make them harmless, however, as they were able to attack places the Capital Reapers were simply too big to get to.

Suddenly, a Reaper beam fired down on a small island nearby, before another Sovereign-class dreadnought landed on and around it.

"Lieutenant-Commander Williams," Anderson spoke into the radio. "We are within sight of the spaceport. ETA, three minutes."

"We've made it to the Normandy," Ashley replied. "We're taking heavy fire." There was a pause, and then she shouted, "Wait! One off our dreadnoughts is inbound to your position. Hang onto your teeth, Sir!"

Half a second after Ashley finished speaking, an enormous Thanix round, far larger than the ones Shepard had seen previously, slammed into the Reaper in front of Anderson and John with an ear-splitting explosion. Knocked off balance and staggering back, the Reaper fired its weapons wildly, trying, and failing, to hit its attacker. Then, another round struck it, breaking through its shields and obliterating half the ship. The Reapers legs and the very tip of its stern, which was now the top, fell into the harbor.

Turning the corner of the building, the two soldiers finally saw the culprit who had destroyed the leviathan, as well as their eardrums. A dreadnought, one of the 84 in the Alliance's navy, was flying above the city, dealing out death and destruction to all nearby Reapers. While significantly smaller than a Capital ship class Reaper, at one kilometer it was still enormous. On the vessel's side were emblazoned the letters, "SSV K2".

The smaller Reapers Shepard had observed earlier all began firing at the new threat. However, thanks to advances in kinetic barrier technology, the K2 was able to shrug off the rounds. Firing its main gun at another distant Reaper, the dreadnought brought its smaller broadside cannons to bear on the smaller ships attacking it. With dozens of Thanix cannons on each side, the K2 began bringing down numerous small Reapers.

Suddenly, a shadow covered the area. Looking up, Shepard saw a Capital Reaper coming down directly on top of the K2. Firing all its forward weapons, the Reaper began assaulting the ship. The Alliance dreadnought's shields held, then flickered, and then failed entirely. Another beam hit the top of the K2, and the ship exploded in a massive fireball.

_They hit the power core, _was all John's brain had time to tell him before the shockwave hit them.

Anderson and Shepard were both blasted against the side of the building by the blast. An instant latter, the platform they were on collapsed, sending the duo on a barely controlled slide to another pile of rubble. Dazed, Shepard came to his feet just in time to see the last pieces of the SSV K2 fall into the harbor.

John swore every foul oath in every language he knew. The war with the Reapers had barely begun, and already the Alliance had lost one of its precious dreadnoughts.

Continuing across the rubble, which had formed a makeshift bridge over the water, they spotted two Alliance soldiers, one of whom was pinned under a piece of rubble. Jumping down to them, Shepard asked, "Are you two alright?"

"Get down," the uninjured soldier hissed. "They'll see you!"

Looking across to another rubble island, Shepard spotted four creatures that he did not recognize, but had the unmistakable signs of Reaper alteration. One of them was dead, and the remaining three were…..eating it. One of the creatures, sensing that it was being watched, lifted to its full height. Now that he had a good look at it, John could see that it was a bipedal organism, and its face was unmistakably batarian, a rouge race that had cut all contact with the Citadel races after the Council had refused to forbid humans from settling in the Skyllian Verge. Since then, the only information that left batarian space was their government's propaganda, and what different spy groups had uncovered.

_The Reapers probably hit the Batarian Hegemony right from the start, _John thought. _With no allies Kar'shan would have fallen quickly, allowing the Reapers a foothold in the galaxy without anyone even knowing about it. _

Upon spotting Shepard, the batarain husk let out a war cry, and raised its right arm, which seemed to have some sort of gun fused into it, and opened fire. Shepard took cover as the other two repeated the first. While Shepard had never encountered this foe before, the fight quickly became a firefight from cover, and John had been through countless such scenarios during his career. Between himself and Anderson, the beasts were dispatched in short order.

Returning to the soldiers, Anderson asked, "What happened here?"

"Our gunship was shot down," the less battered of the two men replied. "We barely made it."

"You have a radio," Anderson asked. "We're trying to contact our ship."

"No, the gunship has one, though. But it's gonna be crawling with those things."

"That's a risk we'll have to take," Shepard replied.

Standing, he and Anderson lifted the piece of rubble pinning the other soldier down. The marine groaned as his leg came free. Setting the debris down again, it sank into the water until it was even with their platform, creating a small bridge that John and Anderson crossed.

Climbing up a small ramp, they saw that the soldier was right; the crash site was covered with these new foes. Luckily catching them on their flank, Shepard threw a grenade among the largest cluster of husks, destroying the entire group. Continuing on, they found two more amongst the wreckage itself. These were quickly killed with gunfire by the two officers.

While Anderson searched for the radio, Shepard spotted another weapon nearby, a fully-automatic M-8 Avenger. He immediately grabbed the weapon and began loading spare thermal clips into it. At the same time, Anderson found the radio.

"Normandy, this is Anderson. Do you read?"

"Admiral," Ashley said over the radio. "What is your location?"

"By a downed gunship in harbor," Anderson explained. "I'm activating its distress beacon. Send support; we have wounded down here."

The radio, clearly on its last legs, spluttered for a moment, then went dark.

"Let's hope that distress beacon works," John commented.

"And fast," Anderson said, pointing at the sky. "We have company."

Looking up, Shepard saw several small meteorites streaking toward them, crashing nearby. Out of these pods came numerous batarian husks. They all began to open fire on them.

Taking cover, Anderson and Shepard began whittling down the attack force. Yet no matter how many they killed, more pods crashed and more enemies emerged to attack them. Very quickly, Shepard was out of grenades and thermal clips for his rifle. Throwing away the useless weapon, John pulled out his pistol, painfully aware that he had few shots remaining for that weapon as well. He took careful aim at the oncoming horde, making every shot count.

Another drop pod crashed, releasing still more batarian husks to attack. Taking aim, Shepard set one of the monsters in his sights, and pulled the trigger.

_Click!_

Shepard swore, and ducked back behind the rubble he was using as cover. "Anderson," he called to the admiral. "I'm out of ammo!"

"Join the club, Shepard," came Anderson's reply.

Suddenly, a new voice sounded in their earpieces.

"The Calvary's here, gentlemen!"

It was Jeff "Joker" Moreau, the Normandy's helmsman.

An instant later, two rockets flew into the husk force, obliterating the entire force. The Normandy flew over the battle zone, then banked left and began circle back.

"About time," Anderson breathed.

"Let's go," Shepard shouted, eager to get back to his ship. He immediately began running across the rubble toward the frigate, Anderson close behind.

Climbing up a ramp formed by the wreckage, Shepard finally reached the Normandy, which opened its hanger bay door. Ashley, Tali, and an Alliance marine he didn't recognize stepped out, weapons scanning for any sign of Reaper ground forces.

Taking a running start, Shepard leapt across the small gap and onto the Normandy. Tali and Ashley each grabbed one of his arms, helping to keep him from losing his balance.

Turning around, he saw Anderson come to a halt on the debris, and did not jump to the ship. "Come on Anderson," he called. "We need to get out of here.

Anderson looked up a shuttle flying overhead, then back to John.

"I'm not going."

Shepard blanched. The idea that Anderson, his friend and mentor, and one of the highest ranking officers in the Systems Alliance, was going to STAY in this mess was inconceivable.

Pointing over his shoulder, the admiral clarified by saying, "You saw those men back there. There's millions more like them, and they need a leader."

"If you're staying, then so am I," John shouted back. "We're in this fight together, Anderson!"

The admiral shook his head. "It's a fight we can't win. Not without help. We need every species, and all their ships, to even have a chance at defeating the Reapers. Go to the Citadel and talk with the Council. Convince them to help us."

Shepard cocked an eyebrow. "And if they won't listen."

"Then MAKE them listen," Anderson shouted. "Now GO! That's an order!"

"I don't take orders from you anymore," John shouted back. "Relieved of duty, remember?"

Anderson smirked, pulled something out of his back pocket, and tossed it to Shepard, who caught the object.

It was a pair of dogtags, with his name and ID number on them.

"Consider yourself reinstated, Commander!"

Shepard cursed under his breath; he was backed into a corner. Like it or not, he was leaving.

Looking his commanding officer in the eye, John said, "I'll be back for you, sir."

"Bring friends," Anderson joked.

"I will. Enemies too. Everyone that can fight or fly a ship." Turning to enter the Normandy, he paused, and then added, "Good luck, sir."

"You too, Commander," Anderson replied.

With a final salute, the Admiral turned and ran back down the ramp, while the Normandy began lifting into the air. As this was happening, three Alliance shuttles landed near where Anderson and Shepard had found the two stranded soldiers. Opening the doors, numerous Alliance soldiers poured out of them, and almost immediately were set upon by a wave of human husks. Taking up positions at the edge of the makeshift landing zone, the marines opened up one the mechanized zombies, dropping them one after the other. While this firefight began, several civilians came out of the rubble, running toward the shuttles. Scanning the battleground, Shepard nodded in approval; the marines were working together well, with overlapping fields of fire, and making good use of cover. The mindless husks did none of these things, and fell in droves. These men and women could easily hold until the civilians were loaded, and then get out safely.

Looking back at one of the shuttles, John's eyes widened in surprise; he saw the little boy from the ducts. The child was standing next to the shuttle closest to the Normandy, looking around and not sure what to do. Then, he looked up, and Shepard and the boy locked eyes for a few moments.

Then, the drone of a Reaper sounded, dangerously close. Both Shepard and the child looked, and spotted the threat; one of the smaller Reapers was marching on the shuttles, its main gun charging. Dread clutched Shepard's heart; although they were armed, the Alliance shuttles were on the ground, sitting ducks for the Reaper. Even had they been in the air, John doubted their cannons would have been enough to bring down even this smaller Reaper. Looking back at the boy, Shepard saw him scramble into the shuttle. An instant latter, the door closed, and the shuttle lifted off, followed closely by the shuttle closest to the monster.

Then, the Reaper fired its beam weapon, slashing through one of the rear thrusters of the second shuttle, which plummeted to the ground and exploded.

The Reaper fired again, hitting the child's shuttle dead on. The vessel exploded.

John was certain he could hear the poor child scream.

Wincing, John lowered his head and closed his eyes, horrified and brokenhearted at the sight. Then, he opened his eyes, and raised his gaze to the Reaper which was now obliterating the stranded marines, eyes burning with indignation and hatred.

_I will destroy you, _John swore. _You and your entire race. _

Turning, he marched into the hanger, the door closing behind him. Activating his Omni-tool, he tapped into what cameras and information feeds he could find. What he saw made his blood freeze. Reapers and their ground forces were coming down on Vancouver, and everywhere else on Earth, in swarms. Worse, he could not see any Alliance ships fighting them, or even Thanix rounds fired from orbit.

Getting into the Normandy's far more powerful communications, he found the reason why.

The Alliance First, Third, and Fifth Fleets, along with a third of the Second were retreating toward the Sol Mass Relay.

_No, _John thought. _Not retreating. _

_Fleeing. _

They were sprinting away from the Reapers.

Sighing in defeat, Shepard deactivated his Omni-tool. In spite of the overwhelming force of the Reaper attack, he had hoped that, given the Alliance's fairly good response to being caught with its pants down, they could hold the Reaper assault and then counter-attack and drive them from Sol.

In retrospect, that was very foolish of him.

All he could do now was follow Anderson's orders; live to fight another day, and gather allies.

These were his thoughts as the Normandy exited Earth's atmosphere, dodging ship debris, Alliance and Reaper alike.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**A.N. I am going to explain some things brought up by Kevin, an anomalous reviewer. **

**1. Alliance's ineffectiveness against the Reapers. **

**As it is explained in the game, the Reapers can speed through the mass relays without having to leave forces behind to guard supply lines, because they don't have supply lines. So, they simply sped through full force straight to Earth, so the Alliance couldn't detect them until they were right on top of them, at which point it is too late to mount any real preparations. **

**2. The Alliance only took down one Reaper.**

**One? ONE!? I have described, in detail, SEVERAL Reapers biting the dust. I don't know what you were reading, Kevin, but if that's what you got out of it, it wasn't "And We Shall Overcome". **

**3. Why are the races of the galaxy still making fighters? They are useless against Reapers. **

**The Reapers have their own fighters, the Oculus drones. If the militaries stopped making fighters, than the Reaper Oculi would overwhelm the anti-fighter GAURDIAN lasers of the capital ships, and destroy them. Thus, the forces of the galaxy need fighters of their own. Also, it is said in the Codex that fighters can eventually wear down and kill a Reaper destroyer. **

**4. Why not make a class of ship specifically designed to fight Reapers?**

**Well…..**

Shepard began marching toward the elevator, intending to get to one of the nearby consuls and try to contact Admiral Hackett to find out exactly what was going on. He didn't even notice anything else. Ashley was inspecting her assault rifle at a workbench nearby, while Tali was walking beside him, trying to get his attention, and failing.

Also coming up behind him was James Vega. "What the hell is going on," the lieutenant asked. "Where's Anderson? Where are we going?" When Shepard ignored him, he raised his voice and yelled, "HEY!"

Finally turning to him, John said simply, "We're leaving," before continuing on his way.

"Leaving," Vega spluttered, unable to believe what he just heard.

"Anderson wants us to go to the Citadel," Shepard explained, struggling to keep his frayed temper in check, "and get the other galactic militaries to help."

"Bullshit," James said. "He wouldn't order us to leave!"

"Well, he did," Tali spoke up. "I was there."

"We don't have a choice, Lieutenant," John cut in before James could reply to Tali. "Without help, this war is already over."

"Well you can forget it," James declared. "You can just drop me off someplace, 'cause I ain't leav-"

"ENOUGH!" Shepard's temper finally broke completely. "You think I LIKE this, James? Don't you think I'd rather stay and fight?" Turning back to the consul he had arrived at, he said, "We're going to the Citadel. If you want out, you can catch a ride back from there." Waving his arms in exasperation, James started marching away.

Half a second later, Joker called over the ship's intercom. "Commander, you there?"

"What's up, Joker," John asked.

"I've got an emergency call coming in for you. From Admiral Hackett."

_How convenient. _

"Patch it through, Joker," Shepard said immediately.

Looking down at the consul, John saw an image of Admiral Steven Hackett materialized on the screen, albeit with a heavy amount of static.

"Shepard," the Admiral said through the interference, "….sustained heavy losses. …Reaper force….overwhelming. There's no way to beat them just with what we have."

"Anderson has already ordered me to the Citadel to talk with the Council, Admiral," Shepard replied.

"First, I need….go to the Prothean Archives on Mars,….fore we lose control of the system."

Snapping a salute, Shepard said, "Yes, sir!"

Continuing, Hackett said, "….been researching the Archives…..Dr. T'Soni."

_Liara?_ Shepard thought, confused. Liara T'Soni, an asari Prothean archeologist and extremely powerful biotic, was another member of his crew during his hunt for Saren three years ago, and had since taken over as the Shadow Broker, the galaxy's most powerful information broker. She was supposed to be at the Broker's hidden ship on Hagalaz. He didn't know why she would be on Mars.

"She may have….way to stop the Reapers," Hackett continued. "May be…ONLY way to stop them. …..in contact soon. Hackett out."

The video cut off.

"Joker," Shepard called into the air, knowing the helmsman was listening. "Set a course for the Mars archives."

"Mars," Joker asked, confused, though he immediately followed with, "Roger that." Immediately, one of the shuttles in the hanger began to move into launching position. John began walking up to the armor and weapon lockers.

"This is loco!" Vega whispered.

"Why Mars," Ashley asked. "What does he think we'll find there?"

"And why is Liara there," Tali inquired.

"I don't know," John said. "But if it helps us win this war, we need it." Lifting up the chest piece to a set of N7 marine armor, Shepard ordered, "Grab your gear."

oo-00-oo

Once the Normandy reached Mars, and the group had finally finished armoring and arming themselves, they climbed into the shuttle. James Vega took the controls as the ship's hanger opened; the shuttle flew out and began entering the Martian atmosphere.

"I've been trying to reach Mars on secure channels," Joker said over the radio. "No one's answering."

"Any sign of Reaper activity?" Shepard asked.

"Negative."

"EDI," Shepard inquired, referring to the Normandy's built in Artificial Intelligence.

"The base is still online," the female-voiced AI responded. "It is possible that the inhabitants were evacuated."

"We'll know soon enough," John declared. "Be ready for anything, Joker."

"Roger that," the helmsman acknowledged. "Normandy out."

After a few more minutes, James began slowing the shuttle down, eventually started hovering, and finally lowered the shuttle to the ground. The James, Ashley and John all put on sealed helmets to protect themselves from the thin, hostile atmosphere of Mars. Tali was already wearing a sealed environmental suit, due to quarians having extremely weak immune systems; if her people did not wear the suits at all times, they would easily develop massive illnesses and infections within hours.

"There's still no contact from the base," James explained as he finished sealing his heavy armor. "But we've got a massive storm headed our way."

"How long before it hits," John asked.

"Half an hour, tops. After that we're going to have trouble keeping up coms with the Normandy."

"Understood," Shepard said, as the shuttle doors opened and the group stepped out. Each of them pulled weapons from the magnetic clamps on their backs; Shepard, Vega, and Ashley all used assault rifles, while Tali wielded a shotgun.

Walking towards a ledge that led down to a path to the Alliance outpost, they spotted the sandstorm, which was several miles high, and extended as far as the eye could see in each direction. Bolts of red lightning flashed at regular intervals across the entire front.

"Damn," James cursed. "That's a HUGH storm!"

"Come on, Lieutenant," Ashley admonished. "For Mars, this isn't that bad."

"I'm afraid I'm with James on this one," Tali murmured.

"I'm more worried about the war back on Earth," Ashley shot back. "Or the fact that no one here is reporting in."

Continuing on ward, the group eventually reached ledge, and jumped down to the road below. Looking to the right, Shepard saw the body of an Alliance soldiers leaning against a nearby pile of crates.

"Over here," he said, pointing out the body. Running up to the corpse, Ashley began scanning it with her Omni-tool. Spotting a Mantis sniper rifle nearby, John picked it up, collapsed it, and stuck it onto another magnetic clamp on his back.

Her scan completed, Ashley stood up, turned to Shepard and said, "Alliance. Sergeant Reeves. It doesn't look like he put up a fight."

"Something is not right here," James commented.

"Just keep a low profile until we know what's going on," Shepard ordered.

The four continued along the trail towards the outpost. Halfway to a bend in the road, however, the unmistakable sound of a gunshot rang out. John immediately sprinted towards a large boulder. Taking cover behind the enormous rock, he peeked out to see what was going on. Upon seeing the scene before him, his eyes widened with shock.

There were two hostages on the ground before him. One was kneeling, his hands on his head. The other was lying on the ground, clearly the person who had just been shot. The two were surrounded by soldiers wearing heavy armor.

Armor with Cerberus logos painted on them.

The Cerberus trooper standing in front of the hostage inspected his weapon with what appeared to be a detached interest. Then, he pointed the weapon at the final hostage, and pulled the trigger. Blood and brains blasted out of the hostage's helmet, before he fell to the ground.

"Holy shit!" James hissed. "They're executing them!"

_Thank you, Captain Obvious,_ John thought bitterly. Without a word, he pulled out a fragmentation grenade, primed it, and threw it into the center of the group.

The Cerberus troopers barely had time to flinch before the bomb exploded, wiping out the entire group.

Then, two more troopers ran out from behind a nearby vehicle, and began advancing toward their positions.

"Who's there," the lead soldier called. "We are taking control of this facility; drop your weapons and come out with your hands on your heads; you will not be harmed if you don't resist."

"Yeah, right," Shepard heard Tali mutter.

"Everybody pop out now, and show these jokers just what their dealing with," Shepard ordered.

"I said, come out now," the Cerberus trooper repeated. "I will not ask again."

John waited half a second, then rolled out next to a piece of deployable cover, and aimed his M-8 directly at the leading Cerberus soldier; Tali did the same with her shotgun, while Ashley and James pointed their weapons at the second trooper.

"Oh crap," the subordinate trooper deadpanned.

They all opened fire at the same time. Shepard poured eight rounds into the trooper's abdomen and lower chest before Tali finished him with a shotgun blast to the head and neck, sending the soldier sprawling on the ground. The second seemed to dance under the impact of Ashley's and James's combined assault; finally, he fell, his body riddled with no less than twenty bullets.

Moving forward, the four warriors searched the vehicles, confirming that there were no more soldiers lying in wait.

"Those guys were Cerberus, weren't they?" James asked.

"Sure looked like it," John replied.

"It's definitely them," Tali spoke up, scanning one of the trooper's helmets with her Omni-tool. "These soldiers' communicators are using encryption that is unique to Cerberus."

"What is Cerberus doing on Mars," Ashley asked.

"Good question," Shepard responded.

"You don't know?" Ashley asked, seemingly surprised by Shepard's ignorance.

"I'm not with them anymore Ashley; why would I know why they're here?" Shepard snapped, not a little angry at the barely veiled accusation.

"That wasn't what I was saying, John," Ashley said.

"It's Commander Shepard to you, Williams," John snarled. "And no, that _was _what you were saying. Move out!" he ordered before the Lieutenant-Commander could respond.

Walking past Tali as he marched toward the Alliance base, Shepard took a good look at the quarian's body language. Most found the quarians hard to read, due to the fact that every inch of them was covered by their suits and visors, but Shepard had months of practical experience to hone his already excellent character-judging skills; it was obvious to him that Tali's helmet was hiding the biggest smirk the quarian had ever worn.

Coming up to the end of the trail, Shepard saw several armored vehicles with Cerberus logos on them. Immediately taking cover, he came under fire from other Cerberus troopers. Calibrating his assault rifle to fire incendiary rounds, he opened fire at the enemy soldiers. A trio of rounds hit the lead trooper in the helmet, setting the man's head alight. Normally, in the near-nonexistent Martian atmosphere, the fire would have been snuffed immediately, but the severed tubes that supplied the trooper with air caused the fire to burn long and hot, cooking the man's head inside of the helmet.

Shepard ducked behind his cover just as two Cerberus troopers opened fire at him. Looking back, he saw Tali activate her Omni-tool and hit the soldiers with a blast of electricity. At first it seemed to do nothing, and the troopers redirected their aim to fire at the quarian. But when they pulled their triggers, the weapons' alarms went off; Tali had hacked the weapons' built in computer to trick them into thinking the weapons were overheating. Now defenseless, the soldiers were easy prey for Tali, who cut them down with two blasts from her shotgun.

Spotting another Cerberus soldier taking cover behind one of their vehicles, Shepard fired a concussive shell at the enemy. Upon hitting the trooper, it exploded with enough force send the soldier sprawling. He attempted to rise, but James came around the vehicle from the other side, placed his own shotgun against the trooper's helmet, and pulled the trigger.

While this happened, Shepard began heading toward the entrance, scanning for a new threat. As he passed a nearby vehicle, he caught something on his peripheral vision, and immediately swayed back.

A Cerberus soldier swung an electrified baton at him, barely missing. Expecting to hit his target, the soldier was thrown off balance when he missed completely, and his momentum sent him down on one knee. Activating his Omni-blade, John drove the diamond-hard, searing hot blade into the trooper's side. The Cerberus soldier shrieked in agony. Pulling the knife out of the man's body, Shepard lifted his arm over his head, and brought it down on the enemy soldier's neck, decapitating him. Deactivating the weapon, he rejoined the other three.

"It doesn't look like they came here in force," James commented.

"Yeah," John replied. "Just a few vehicles."

"Kinda suggests they had help," Ashley added. "From the inside."

Giving the woman what could only be described as 'a look', John snarled, "Seems likely," before turning towards the entrance to the base. Upon reaching it, he saw that it was a large elevator. Once all four of them were on board, he went up to the control consul, and began punching buttons to get the machinery to descend. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ashley approaching him.

"I need a straight answer, Shepard," the Lieutenant-Commander said without preamble.

John, now seriously pissed with his ex's blind belief that he was just chomping at the bit to stab them all in the back and rejoin the terrorists, punched the final command, sending the elevator down, before turning and saying bluntly, "It would help if you asked the question first, you know."

"Do you know anything about this?" she demanded. "What is Cerberus do-"

She was interrupted as Tali grabbed her by the shoulder, shoved her back, brought their faces less than an inch apart, and snarled, "Listen to me, you backstabbing, emotion-twisting, two-faced bosh'tet; if you insinuate that John is behind this one more time, I will stick me shotgun up your ass, and pull the trigger until it goes 'click'!"

Ashley backed up slightly, startled by the normally collected and calm quarian's ire. James whistled softly in the background.

Stepping forward, John placed a hand on Tali's shoulder. Looking her in the eyes, he communicated what he wanted with just a look. _Making her understand is my battle, not yours._ Nodding, Tali backed away.

Turning back to Ashley, he asked, "Why do you think I know what's going on?"

"You worked for them," she said, as though that was all that needed to be said. "How am I supposed to believe that you cut all ties?"

Crossing his arms, John snapped, "How about the firefight we JUST WENT THROUGH? How about that I that the Illusive Man sent me to retrieve data that proved they were experimenting on rachni, I sent it to the Alliance instead? How about the fact that when the Illusive Man ordered me to preserve the Collector Base, I told him to shove it? How about all of those things, huh?"

"They rebuilt you from scratch," Ashley insisted. "They gave you a ship, resources…"

Marching up to her, Shepard shouted, "LET ME BE ABSOLUTELY CLEAR, WILLIAMS; I HAVE HAD _NO_ CONTACT WITH CERBERUS SINCE I DESTROYED THE COLLECTOR BASE! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING HERE OR WHAT THEY WANT! AND I HAVE DONE _NOTHING_ TO WARRANT SUCH DISTRUST AND PETTYNESS FROM YOU!"

"Commander Shepard has been under constant surveillance since he came back to Earth," James finally spoke up. "There's no way they've communicated since."

"And the firewalls the Alliance slapped on his terminals were so thick and advanced, even I couldn't get a message to him," Tali commented.

Turning back John, Ashley said, "Sorry, Shepard. It's just-"

She was cut off as the elevator finally came to a stop, and the room pressurized. Tapping their helmets, the human's breathing apparatuses flattened and shifted back into the main part of the helmet, leaving their faces open.

Looking the woman in the eye, John finished the conversation by saying, "Ashley, if you want to hate Cerberus, fine; they have more than earned your hatred. But I am DONE explaining myself to you." And with that he turned around and waited as the elevator lifted up a short way as the ceiling opened, revealing a spacious room, filled with crates and docking equipment. Walking out into the main area, he thought, _Why I wasted my time and energy on this woman when my soul mate was mere feet away, I will never know._

"Shepard," Ashley began, but was cut off as a series of clanking sounds rang out above them. Immediately grabbing their weapons and diving into cover, the four began scanning the room for the source of the racket. It immediately became clear that the noise was emanating from the air ducts. Gunshots added to the clanging from the tubes, giving testament to a desperate chase through the ducts.

Suddenly, the grating at the end of one of the ducts was kicked off, and Liara T'Soni jumped from the duct, and down to the floor below. She immediately sprinted away from the tubing, from which two Cerberus troopers began clambering out. Suddenly, her hand began glowing with dark blue energy, which she flung at the soldiers.

A singularity, a miniature black hole, snapped into existence right between the Cerberus soldiers. While not large or powerful enough to suck the terrorist soldiers into it, it did yank them off their feet and begin spinning them around in the air, leaving them helpless. Breathing a sigh of relief, Liara pulled a handgun off of her hip, aimed at the soldiers traipsing through the air, and shot both of them in the chest, ending the singularity an instant latter. The two Cerberus soldiers fell to the floor, groaning and thrashing in pain. Walking toward them, Liara looked at them with a look of pure hatred and disgust. Then, she aimed her pistol at the trooper nearest to her, and shot him in the head twice to finish him off. She did the same for the second.

Seeing the situation was well in hand, Shepard collapsed and holstered his weapon, and stepped forward to great his old friend. James Vega however, who had never seen the asari before, approached with his assault rifle trained on her. Pushing the weapon down, John said, "Easy there, Lieutenant; she's with us."

Turning to the newcomers, Liara appeared relieved to see her old friends. "Shepard! Thank the goddess you're alive."

"Likewise, Liara," John replied.

"Shepard, I…" Liara paused, unsure of how to continue. "I'm sorry about Earth."

"Yeah," Ashley cut in. "It was difficult to leave."

"I'm sorry, Ashley," Liara said. Looking past the two of them, Liara said, "Good to see you too, Tali."

"Thank you, Liara," the quarian replied.

"Well," Liara said, now changing the subject, "I'm certainly glad you all came, but what are you doing here?"

"Hackett ordered us to," Shepard explained. "He said you may have found a way to defeat the Reapers."

"I have," Liara confirmed, walking toward a nearby window that overlooked the rest of the base.

"Hallelujah!" James exclaimed. "Some answers. Finally."

"I've discovered the blueprints for a Prothean warship," Liara revealed. "A warship of enormous size and power."

"Just how big and powerful are we talking about here, Liara?" Tali asked.

Looking at her with the most serious look Shepard had ever seen her wear, Liara said, "One of these vessels would be to the Reapers what Sovereign was to the Citadel fleets three years ago."

"Here on Mars?" Shepard couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"In the Prothean Archives, yes," Liara confirmed.

"We've known about the archives for decades," Shepard said. "Why come here now?"

"Process of elimination, mixed with a little desperation. When you destroyed the Alpha Relay, you delayed the Reapers several months. But after that you were under investigation. I knew I had to do something. Hackett knew too, so he asked me to use my Shadow Broker resources to find anything that would help give us an edge." Liara gestured to the Alliance base, and then continued. "My search brought me here. Hackett got me access to the Archives, and kept me updated on your status." She paused, looking rather guilty, before saying, "I meant to visit you, but…"

Shepard dismissed the statement with a wave of his hand, saying, "I was under house arrest, and you had important work to do. I understand. Now where are these blueprints you mentioned?"

"They're still in the Archives, just across that tramway," Liara explained, pointing to the transportation hub out the window. "That's assuming Cerberus hasn't locked it down yet."

"What do they want here?" Shepard asked.

"They want what I'm here for. What we're all here for," Liara explained.

"Of course," John cursed. "Anything as powerful as Liara is describing is something that the Illusive Man would never rest until he got his hands on it."

"So it's a race to the Archives, then," James crowed.

Then the room shook. Looking up at the second floor, Shepard saw sparks shooting out of the crack in the doorway thereupon; Cerberus was burning through the door. Pulling his M-8 into his hands, he called, "We have company."

"Finally," James whispered, arming himself at the same time.

Looking at the Lieutenant, Shepard said, "Not this time, James."

"What?" James blanched.

"Get back to the shuttle," John explained. "If Cerberus beats us to the Archives, I need you covering the exits."

"But…"

Another quake rocked the room.

"NOW, Lieutenant," Shepard ordered.

With a final look of disapproval, James stepped onto the elevator, and activated his breathing apparatus. At the same time, John hit a series of buttons on the control consul, sending the elevator back to the surface. Slowly, the elevator lowered back down to prepare to return to the entrance.

"Shepard!" John heard Tali call. "Cerberus is almost through the door! Get in cover, NOW!"

oo-00-oo

…**.that was my plan from the beginning. **

**Also, I have heard of Bioware's planned "extension" of the endings. While I am cautiously optimistic about the announcement, I believe that it will just not cut it; Mass Effect 3's endings are so abysmally bad, they really need to just scrap everything past Anderson's final words, maybe everything past Shepard getting hit by Harbinger's attack, and start from scratch. **

**Regardless of what happens, though, I will write this story until the end, because this is MY Mass Effect; I it will go where I wish it to go. **


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Shepard ducked into cover just as the Cerberus troopers came through the door and began opening fire upon them, taking cover behind the plexi-glass railing as they did so. Popping out of cover for an instant he fired several rounds at the railing, but apart from a few small cracks did absolutely no damage to the trooper's cover. The two groups began exchanging fire, Shepard's group trying to pick off the Cerberus soldiers whenever they exposed themselves to shoot at them. John knew they were at a disadvantage; given their superior position and numbers, the Cerberus soldiers would probably win a conventional firefight.

Of course, when one of your teammates could spontaneously create miniature black holes on command, no fight was conventional.

"Liara," Shepard shouted. "Singularity, now!" Complying, the asari researcher waved a biotically charged hand in the direction of the enemy soldiers, and another singularity sprang to life, picking them up off the floor and whipping them around through the air, easy prey for Shepard, Liara, Tali and Ashley. Hearing a new group of troopers coming through the doors, Shepard primed and threw a frag grenade onto the upper level. The resulting explosion eradicated the fire team.

"That's all of them," Liara confirmed.

"Good," Shepard replied. "Let's find a way up."

Doing a quick search of the room, Shepard spotted a cargo elevator a short way away from their cover. Immediately gesturing to the other three members of his squad, he boarded the elevator and, once everyone was on board, pressed the button to lift them to the second floor.

The elevator lifted a foot, and then fell back to floor with the sound of failing mechanisms.

"They've sabotaged the elevator," Liara cursed.

"Hold on," Tali interrupted. Activating her Omni-tool, the quarian engineer walked up to the control consul, and began counter-hacking the Cerberus sabotage. A few moments later, the elevator started toward the second level.

"You are a lifesaver, Tali," Shepard said gratefully.

"I do my best," the quarian replied.

Then, Ashley turned to Liara and asked, "How did Cerberus get in? This is a secure facility."

Liara shook her head. "Not sure. One minute we were getting reports of the Reaper invasion, the next there was chaos. Didn't even realize it was Cerberus at first."

"Could they be working with the Reapers," Ashley asked.

"I doubt it," Shepard responded. "But I suppose anything is possible."

Now at the second floor, Shepard lead the way through the door the Cerberus squad had just come through, taking care not to slip on the spilled blood and hydrolytic fluid. As soon as the door opened, a civilian attempted to run to the door, but was gunned down before he could move more than a few feet. With the doorway hidden from sight by a wall, whatever Cerberus soldiers were in the room could not see him. Using this, John crouched and ran behind a small out cropping in the center of the room. Sneaking a peak, he saw that one of the enemy soldiers had his back to him. Moving carefully along the out cropping, Shepard positioned himself directly behind the trooper, and then struck.

Reaching up and over his cover, he grabbed the Cerberus soldier by a handle on the back of his armor and yanked him onto the floor in front of him. Sprawled out and helpless, the trooper could only watch in horror as John brought back his arm, activated his Omni-tool, and drove the blade attachment into the soldier's head, directly between his eyes.

Placing the M-8 Avenger on its magnetic clamp, Shepard reached down to the small of his back and brought out his M-23 Katana shotgun, the weapon's wide spread ideal for the enclosed space they were now in. Rising from behind the outcropping, John shouldered the weapon, aimed at the nearest Cerberus trooper, and pulled the trigger. The speeding pellets cracked through the enemy soldier's chest plate, and shredded the torso beneath. He fell with a sickening gurgle.

Looking past his latest kill, he saw the rest of the opposing fireteam had taken cover behind a plexiglass railing, making it impossible for him to hit them. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tali activate her Omni-tool, and extend her arm toward the Cerberus troopers. A holographic drone popped into existence behind the railing and began electrocuting the soldiers, causing them to break cover in surprise, alarm, and pain. Ashley then threw an inferno grenade, immolating all but one of the soldiers.

The last trooper lost his nerve completely, and attempted to flee the group. Before he could reach the door at the back of the room, he was suddenly encased in a white field of energy. Shepard immediately recognized it as a stasis field, another biotic power; the person encased within was completely immobilized. Liara, clearly the caster, walked calmly up to the trapped soldier, placed her pistol against the side of his helmet, and pulled the trigger. Blood, brains, metal and bone all sprayed out the opposite side of the soldier's head. At the same time, the stasis field failed and the soldier fell, dead before he hit the ground.

Turning back to the rest of the group, the asari said, "We'll need access to the pedway. The controls should be nearby." Nodding, Shepard opened the door the last trooper had attempted to run through, and passed through, scanning for any new threats. Turning the corner, he saw a large, open tram station. Sheathing his Katana, he again drew the Avenger from over his right shoulder and began heading toward the control room nearby, still alert for Cerberus attacks.

Upon entering the control room they found, in addition to the necessary controls, several dead Alliance soldiers and an arms locker. While almost all the weapons were gone, there were numerous thermal clips to replenish their supply and a single M-4 Shuriken submachine gun, which he gave to Liara. The biotic thanked him, and placed the weapon on a magnetic clamp on her opposite of her pistol.

"Tali, see if you can gain access to the pedway," Liara said. Nodding, the quarian immediately sat at the nearby terminal, and set to work.

Liara sat at a second terminal, apparently devoted to security footage. After typing in several commands, she said, "I can't seem to unlock the live feeds, but…."

"Hey, did you see that," Ashley said, pointing toward a nearby screen, which showed a woman working furiously at a computer.

"That's Dr. Eva Core," Liara explained. "She got here about a week ago."

Turning to Tali, Shepard asked, "Any luck?"

Sighing in defeat, his girlfriend shook her head and replied, "No. Pedway has been locked out of the system."

"All right," Liara sighed. "There's construction nearby; we can get out on the roof." As she said this, she pressed several buttons on the consul and a nearby door unlocked. "We can find a way around from there."

"Great," Shepard said. "Let's move."

Going up to and opening the now unlocked door, Shepard saw that it was, in fact, an airlock. Tapping on his helmet, the built in breathing apparatus again extended, sealing his armor. Looking behind him, he saw Ashley do the same, and Liara pulled out a breathing mask, and placed it over her face. Once everyone was ready, Shepard punched the command to exit the airlock. Slowly, the air drained from the room so that the four of them were not blasted out via explosive decompression. Once the pressure was equal with the exterior, the doors opened.

As soon as they stepped outside, it became clear that the storm was much closer. The wind was so intense that they had to partially activate their mag-boots so that they weren't blasted away. Spotting a ladder nearby, Shepard descended to a lower level, Ashley, Tali, and Liara close behind.

Now partly shielded from the wind by the building in front of them, the group began jogging toward another ladder to continue onwards. As they did, Shepard began receiving a garbled transmission.

"Commander," Shepard could make out, "do you read me?" John recognized James Vega's voice.

"Barely," he replied. "The storm's causing interference."

"Tell me about it," the lieutenant responded. "I've lost contact with the Normandy. What's your pos…" The message descended into static.

"Repeat, James," Shepard ordered. "I didn't read that."

"I said, what's…." James's voice was completely drowned out.

"Damn it," Shepard cursed.

"That's storm is going to be here very soon," Liara spoke up.

"Liara, it's here NOW," John snapped.

"Good point."

Climbing the ladder, Sheppard walked to the side of the roof, and leapt across the small gap between to the next building. Once the rest of the group had joined him, he noticed something unusual a few feet away.

The both sets of doors of the airlock to the building were wide open.

"This airlock shouldn't be open," Ashley immediately said. "And it doesn't look like it was forced."

"No, you have to override security protocols to open it," Liara confirmed.

"That doesn't bode well…." Tali murmured.

After walking a short way into the building, it became clear that all the lights had failed; it was pitch black. Hitting a switch on his wrist, he activated his armor's built in flashlight, allowing him some level of visibility. _Although, I really don't see why they can't put night vision in our visors,_ John thought. _If they can give us these fancy HUD's, why not something as basic as that? _

Then, as they moved into the room, the group spotted the body of a civilian, lying on the ground. Then another. And another. Inspecting the bodies, John found no gunshots, or other battle injuries.

He realized, to his horror, that Cerberus had vented the room's atmosphere _while the civilians were still inside!_

"Looks like they died trying to find some way out," Ashley commented.

"This is brutal, even by Cerberus standards," Liara agreed.

"Given what Cerberus has done, both to my people and the Alliance, I shouldn't be shocked by the fact that they would do this," Tali said, disgust in her voice. "But I am."

Walking down a set of stairs at the center of the room, the group eventually reached the ground floor. There were three windows in the far wall, in between two doors, which had been sealed. As they were halfway across, the shutters began retracting from the top down.

"Kill the lights," Shepard hissed, sprinting into cover just below the central window. The other three slipped into cover just as the shutters came down, Tali next to him, and Liara and Ashley behind two counters behind them.

Taking a quick glance up, John saw that two Cerberus troopers were right above them, looking around the room for targets. Drawing the Katana from its clamp, he looked Tali in the eye, and then nodded. The couple rose up from their crouched positions, aimed their shotguns directly at the two troopers' heads, and opened fire on the stunned Cerberus operatives. The tungsten pellets easily broke through the glass and blasted the troopers' heads to pieces, blood spurting from the ragged wounds of their necks. At the same time, the room started decompressing, sending two other Cerberus soldiers right towards them. Tali ducked behind cover again as one of them sailed past right where she was before, but Shepard held his ground. Bring out his Omni-tool's blade once again, drove it into the abdomen of the trooper flying towards him, bringing the trooper to a halt. Then, he placed his Katana underneath the man's chin, and pulled the trigger. Pellets and blood decorated the ceiling. Turning his head, he saw Ashley and Liara riddle the second trooper with so many slugs the man's armor soon resembled swiss cheese.

_This armor is completely useless, _John thought. _Why do they even bother wearing it? _

Jumping over into the next room, the four immediately discovered that it was another tram station, and headed into the control room just to their left.

"We need to pressurize the room first," Liara said, and began tapping commands onto the consul directly in front of her. Immediately, the shutters on the shattered window shut again, and Shepard heard a strong _hiss_ as the room again filled with air. Once the process was complete, Shepard and Ashley deactivated their helmets' breather function, and Liara removed her mask.

"There we go," Liara spoke up. "We have access to the labs. They'll take us right to the tram station."

"Wait a minute," Ashley said suddenly. "There's a recording of what happened here."

Following her gaze, Shepard saw an image of an Alliance soldier seated at the contol panels, with another standing behind him. Walking up to the computer, Shepard pressed the "play" button.

"Security station, come in," the recording began. "We're seeing some odd activity down here. Our security protocols just kicked in; everything's locked down." Then, Dr. Eva Core stepped into view.

"Doctor," the security officer said, "I'll get you a report as soon as-". He was cut off as Eva Core suddenly drew a side arm shot both officers in the head. Liara was flabbergasted. Turning back to the recording, he saw the doctor, who by then was obviously a Cerberus spy, begin tapping instructions on the control consul. Then, it showed the atmosphere venting from the room they were just in, with the workers and scientists chocking to death. Finally, the recording ended.

"Well, at least we know how Cerberus got in," Shepard said gravelly.

Liara was in complete shock by the revelation. "I should have realized it when we met," she whispered. "But I was just so focused on finding a way to stop the Reapers."

"Stopping the Reapers is the ONLY thing we should be focused on," John said. "It's not your fault."

"But what if we're wrong," Liara asked. "What if there is no way to stop them? What if these are our last days, and we spend them scurrying around trying to solve a problem we can't fix?"

"Liara!" Shepard snapped; he was downright alarmed by his friend's fatalist statement.

Turning back to him, Liara said, "I know; I shouldn't think that way."

"Damn right, you shouldn't" John responded forcefully. "You yourself know that there are plans for a superdreadnought that would dwarf even Sovereign are within this very building; we are going to win this war! All we have to do is get to them."

"I believe you, Shepard," Liara said once John's pep talk was finished. "Or, I believe that you believe it. Maybe that's enough." Turning back to the command consul, the asari punched several commands into it, unlocking another set of doors. "There, the door's open. We can get to the labs and tram station from there."

"Good," Shepard said, drawing his assault rifle. "Let's move!"

oo-00-oo

Eventually, the four fighters had finally reached their destination; the Prothean Computers that held the information that launched humanity's solar empire. Along the way, they encountered two more types of Cerberus soldiers; one was more heavily armored than standard troopers, which was augmented by kinetic shields, and threw smoke grenades, while the second type held enormous physical shields in front of them that could shrug off bullets, explosives, and even Liara's biotics. However, their shields had a slit in the top so that the soldiers could see, and John and Ashley had wasted no time unleashing their Mantis sniper rifles and shooting through their peepholes.

Immediately upon entering the room, Shepard, Liara, Tali, and Ashley immediately ran up to the human-made monitors in order to extract the data that they needed. As Liara worked, however, Shepard heard a slight electrical disturbance behind him. Turning he had to bite back a curse.

Standing on a quantum entanglement communications panel, which had previously displayed an image of the Prothean data drives in front of them, was a man. His grey hair and heavy wrinkles put him in his late 60's or early 70's, though his face still retained some of its youthful handsomeness. He was dressed in a fancy, pressed suit, and a cigarette was held in his first two fingers of his right hand.

He was The Illusive Man, the de facto leader of Cerberus.

"Shepard," he said simply.

Upon hearing his voice, Liara immediately spun around and pointed her pistol at the villain, though the weapon could not harm him; The Illusive Man was likely in a system far removed from Sol.

"Illusive Man," the asari growled under her breath.

TIM ignored her, entirely focused on John. "Fascinating race, the Protheans," he said, as if making casual conversation. "They left all of this for us to discover, but we've squandered it. The Alliance has known about these archives for more than thirty years, and what have they done with it?"

"What do you want," Shepard snapped, stepping forward.

TIM looked at the prothean data drives with look of supreme greed and power lust.

"What I've always wanted," he said simply. "The data in these archives holds the key to solving the Reaper threat, but it can be used for far more than that."

"I've seen your solution," John spat. "You're leading your people on a campaign just as genocidal as the Reapers."

"Hardly," TIM replied. "Why destroy the other races when we can subjugate them, make them work for us." He took a drag on his cigarette, and then continued. "That's what separates us Shepard. You believe that if you can get these plans and build these prothean ships you can stop the Reapers, and you are correct. But we can also use them to bring all the other races of the galaxy to heel, to raise humanity to its rightful spot; the uncontested rulers of the Milky Way."

John clenched his fists and his teeth with fury. "Earth is under siege, and you're hatching a scheme to ENSLAVE everyone else in the galaxy? While the world you swore you would do anything to protect burns?"

"You have always been shortsighted and hasty," TIM said, ignoring the commander's questions. "Your destruction of the Collector Base proved that."

"I would never have given it to you," John declared. "I know how you work, and how you would use it. Power corrupts, and you have more than enough power already."

TIM took another drag from his cigarette, and said calmly, "This isn't your fight any longer, Shepard. You won't defeat the Reapers, even with all the precautions you and the governments have taken. Not the way you work and think."

"Then help me," John said, his desire for everyone to cooperate against a common threat temporarily winning out over his utter hatred for the man and everything he represented. "Work with me, and give me access to your resources; we will need them with what we need to do."

"You would do better than most, but you still won't succeed," TIM said flatly.

"The Reapers will kill us all if we don't stand together," John shouted, desperately trying to make TIM see the light. Even as he said the words, Shepard knew he was wasting his breath.

"I don't expect you to understand, Shepard," TIM replied, now looking perturbed. "And I'm certainly not looking for your approval. You were a tool, an agent with a singular purpose. And despite our differences, you were relatively successful." He paused and turned his head, as though looking at someone else in whatever room he was in, before continuing. "But like the rest of the relics in this place, your time is over."

"Enough talk," John spat, now completely fed up with the terrorist. "Liara, Tali, get the data and let's get out of here."

"Don't interfere with my plans, Shepard," TIM said, his tone and voice now threatening. "I won't warn you again."

"Duly noted," John snarled. He refused to be intimidated by an old man who couldn't even fight his own battles.

"Shepard," Liara suddenly called. "The data, it's not here! It's being erased!"

TIM smirked. "Goodbye, Shepard," he said, before stepping off the entanglement plate.

"Damn it," Shepard cursed. "How is he doing it?"

"It's local," Tali clarified. "Someone's uploading the information."

As this was going on, Ashley was patrolling the room, looking for any Cerberus surprises. Eventually, she came to a control room of sorts, and looked inside.

There she found Dr. Eva Core, working furiously to download the prothean warship data.

"Hey," Ashley yelled. "Step away from the consul!"

It all happened in a flash.

Eva Core moved so fast she looked like a blur; first she knocked Ashley rifle aside, then she roundhouse kicked her to the floor. With the immediate threat taken care of, she plunged her Omni-tool into the computer, somehow downloading the data. The prothean archives' lights went out as the data was removed. Task completed, the Cerberus double agent fled the scene just as Ashley recovered from her assault.

As Core ran past, Shepard grabbed his pistol and tried to fire at her, but the women was so fast Shepard couldn't keep up with her; by the time he fired, she had already moved out of the bullet's trajectory. Giving up trying to shoot her, John holstered his weapon and sprinted after her. Though Eva Core was fast, John was even faster. He had always been an excellent runner; he had often been a messenger for the Reds in his youth. Running through and over the lowest streets in Vancouver had turned John into a sprinter, marathon runner, and parkour expert even before he had joined the Alliance.

Knowing he could not overcome Shepard with speed alone, Core began shutting doors and emergency bulkheads to try and slow him down. While it did delay him a few seconds, John easily made up the distance.

Eventually, the chase led to the roof, where a Cerberus shuttle was circling, waiting to pick Eva Core up. Realizing they couldn't do so with Shepard so near, they moved to higher ground, and Eva began running again. Using her Omni-tool, she sent incendiary explosives into several piles of crates along the side of the roof, trying to slow Shepard down. However, for someone as well versed in free-running as John, these crates were laughably easy to overcome. Eventually running out of piles, Core began firing the explosive directly at him, forcing John to swerve from side to side. Vaguely, Shepard was aware of Liara, Ashley and Tali desperately trying to catch up.

"James," Shepard called on his communicator. "Can you read me?"

All he got was static.

"Cerberus has the data," he shouted, desperate to get help in case Core escaped.

More static.

"Radio the Normandy," he ordered his squad. "Get them down here now!"

Finally, he climbed the last ladder to the very top of the facility.

Just in time to see Eva Core jump into the Cerberus shuttle.

Panic gripped John's heart. "James, Normandy? Anyone?" he shouted into his comm.

"I got this one!" James's voice suddenly sounded on Shepard's radio.

Looking up Sheppard spotted the shuttle his team had used to deploy to the facility. And it was racing at the Cerberus shuttle at maximum speed.

"James, what are you-" was all John had time to get out.

The Alliance shuttle slammed into its Cerberus counterpart nearly head on, sending them both crashing toward the building. While James had enough momentum and control to avoid crashing into the side, the Cerberus one wasn't so fortunate; it smashed into the side of the building before bouncing back and slamming down in the upright position, breaking off three of its thrusters and setting the whole vehicle alight.

Shepard got back to his feet and took stock of the situation; Tali had been the farthest away from the crash and was unharmed apart from being worried about everyone else. Liara on the other hand was badly shaken up. Ashley got to her feet, and lifted Liara up. At the same time, James brought the shuttle in for a barely controlled landing; Shepard could tell just by looking at the thing that they would not be getting back to the ship in this.

Just then Lieutenant Vega stepped out. "Normandy's on route," he said non-chalantly. "They'll be here soon."

Just as Shepard was about to rip James's head off for his reckless behavior, he heard a crash, followed by several gunshots. Grabbing his pistol, John ran around the shuttle, and froze in horror.

A Cerberus mech, one that bore an exact resemblance to the women John had just been chasing was standing next to the other shuttle's wreckage, holding Ashley by the faceplate. Placing two fingers on her ear, the mech asked "Orders?"

On his base near an uncharted star in the Horsehead Nebula, The Illusive Man said, "Finish her."

Turning, the mech slammed Ashley's head into the shuttle's side once. Twice. Three times.

"NO!" Shepard screamed. Hearing his wail, the mech dropped Ashley and raced toward him.

Time seemed to slow as the mech raced toward him. Shepard shot four times. The final bullet hit where the tip of the sternum would be in a human, and the mech fell to the ground, clearly deactivated.

"Grab that thing," he ordered to James. "Bring it with us." He immediately raced toward Ashley.

"Shepard!" Joker shouted through the radio. "We've got Reaper signatures in orbit! They're headed straight for us!"

Upon reaching the Lieutenant-Commander, he said frantically, "Ash? Ashley!"

There was no response from her.

Refusing to believe that she had died, Shepard grabbed her unmoving body slung her over his shoulders. The Normandy, meanwhile, had just arrived, and had opened its hanger so that they could walk in. The four people both entered the ship, Tali supporting Liara. Looking around, Shepard saw at least a dozen small Reapers descending on the base and the area around it.

Once everyone was onboard, Joker and EDI closed the hanger doors, and lifted the Normandy off to prepare to exit the atmosphere. However, one of the small Reapers was blocking their path. Having already prepped weapons beforehand, Joker placed two fingers over the firing button and asked, "Do you want to push it together, EDI?"

"I do not have any fingers, Mr. Moroeu," the AI replied.

"Oh, right, sorry," the helmsman stammered, hitting the button. The Normandy's Thanix Cannon fired a single round at the Reaper, hitting near a joint for one of the vessel's legs, blasting the appendage off, sending the rest of the Reaper spinning away, and clearing the Normandy's path. After breaking out of Mars's atmosphere, Joker accelerated to FTL speeds to the Charon Mass Relay, and fled the system.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

While Joker piloted the ship out of the Sol System, Shepard, Tali, Liara, and James, carrying Ashley and the inert Cerberus mech, boarded the elevator. Once everyone was inside, Shepard hit the button for Deck 3 of the ship, which contained the Normandy's medical bay. The elevator doors closed, and Shepard felt the lift begin to rise. After a few seconds of waiting, John began mashing the Deck 3 button repeatedly, impatient to get to his destination.

"Continually pressing the button will not make you arrive at your destination any faster, Commander," EDI said.

"Shut up," John snapped.

Finally, the door opened, and Shepard practically sprinted out of the cramped space, turning to the left, and ran toward the med bay. Cursing the Alliance brass for taking the Normandy's medical officer, Dr. Karin Chakwas, off the ship, John stepped into the med bay, and gently lowered Ashley's unconscious form on one of the medical beds. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Vega drop the badly burned and shot up Cerberus mech unceremoniously on the bed directly across from Ashley's.

Staring at Ashley's unmoving form, Shepard went into panic mode. While all System Alliance marines were taught basic medical training, he had no ability to treat injuries of this magnitude; she was clearly suffering severe head trauma. This was not something that could be fixed simply by pouring some medi-gel on it.

Suddenly, Liara leaned down on the other side of the bed, and half-shouted, "Ashley needs medical attention! We need to leave the Sol system!"

The absurd obviousness of what the asari just said caused Shepard to snap out of his thoughts, and sarcastically snap, "Really?"

Liara blinked at the Commander's hostility, and then continued, "The Citadel is our best chance. We can find help there."

"Good," Shepard replied. "We were headed there anyway, to speak with the Council." Looking up at the ceiling, John shouted, "Get us there, Joker!"

"Roger that," Joker replied over the intercom.

Placing a hand on the unconscious women's shoulder, John whispered, "Hold on, Ash." He might have been infuriated by the women's blatant insistence that he was still with Cerberus, but he certainly did not want her to die. Especially not now, while the Reapers were invading.

Looking up at everyone, he ordered, "See what you and EDI can learn from that thing," gesturing to the Cerberus mech.

Nodding, Liara immediately turned and walked over to the bed where James had placed the mech. Out of the corner of his eye, John saw Tali staring at him intently, her luminescent silver eyes narrowed to slits. Alarm bells immediately began sounding in his head; Tali had something to say to him, and whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant. Before either of them could say anything, however, EDI's voice came across the comm.

"Commander, I am receiving a signal over the secondary Quantum Entanglement Communicator. I believe it is Admiral Hackett."

Turning and running through the door, he replied, "Patch me through." Though he knew that this was a very important meeting, and that they needed to focus on defeating the Reapers, he was immeasurably grateful for this reprieve from his own personal issues.

Re-entering the elevator, John hit the button for deck 2, which held the Combat Information Center, and the War Room, the latter his destination. When the elevator stopped and the door opened, Shepard tore to the right, passed through the security scanner, past the meeting room, through the War Room, and finally into the comm room. As he walked in, he saw a hologram of Admiral Hackett, who was saying, "Shepard, can you read me? Commander?" The transmission was slightly out of focus, and the Admiral's voice marred by static.

"EDI, can you clean this up?" Shepard asked the AI.

"I will do my best," the synthetic intelligence replied.

Pressing a button on the consul to accept Hackett's message, Shepard stood at attention, and said, "Admiral."

Hackett breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Commander, good to hear from you. Did you get the Archives?"

"I was there," John confirmed. "So was the Illusive Man."

Admiral Hackett's face darkened. "I was worried Cerberus might try something. Did you and Dr. T'Soni find anything that might help us?"

"Yes," Shepard said irritably, "but he downloaded some before we could stop him. EDI and Liara are analyzing what we recovered." Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned and saw Liara enter the room and walk up to the communicator."

Turning to the asari researcher, Hackett asked, "What have you learned? Was it worth the effort?"

"Preliminary evidence suggests that the data is a blueprint for a Prothean warship," Liara explained.

"Warship?" the admiral repeated, eyes widening.

Tapping a few buttons on her Omni-tool, Liara brought up the schematics of the vessel, and began describing its proportions. "It appears to be a superdreadnought, one that would dwarf even Sovereign; 4 kilometers long, and 500 meters in diameter. It seems that the Protheans also were able to develop Thanix cannons, because they are its main armaments; five massive forward cannons, and 624 broadside cannons. Its kinetic barriers would require nothing short of an asteroid strike to breach and its anti-fighter laser batteries contain both infra-red and ultra-violet frequencies. In addition, it has a stealth system that is almost identical to the Normandy's; these vessels would be completely undetectable until the stealth drives were shut off."

As Liara listed the ship's attributes, Shepard felt his blood run cold, particularly the part about the stealth drive; the salarians had managed to develop stealth drives for their dreadnoughts, but those ships were a quarter of the size of these ships. The amount of damage this ship could unleash was like nothing he could imagine. Anyone with such a ship at their disposal would be virtually unstoppable.

He was suddenly even happier than he already was that they had stopped the Illusive Man from getting this information. He would never allow that man, no, that _thing_, to possess such a weapon.

"Send me the data," Hackett ordered. "We'll do our own analysis. If you two are right, and if we can build enough of these things, we might be able to defeat the Reapers."

"I hope so," Shepard murmured. Then, he added, "Lieutenant-Commander Williams was critically wounded. We're taking her to the Citadel."

Hackett's face softened slightly, and he replied, "Sorry to hear that, Commander, but we both know this is just the beginning. Talk to the Council. Show them what you've found. With luck, they'll give us all the support we need."

Shepard, who had a very deep-seated hatred for politicians and all other things politics, due in no small part to the very same Council's dragging their feet during his search for Saren, asked, "And if they don't?"

"Do whatever it takes to get them on board", Hackett ordered, his tone indicating that he would not accept anything less. And neither would Shepard.

John stood at attention, and saluted the Admiral. Hackett returned the salute, and then said, "I'll be in touch soon. Hackett out." With a slight electric buzz, Hackett stepped out of QEC, and the link was ended.

Liara turned and began to leave the room, but stopped when she realized that John wasn't following her. Turning, she saw the Commander leaning over the dashboard of the communicator.

"Shepard," she said softly, "EDI is extracting data from the Cerberus machine. We'll have details to present to the Council by the time we reach the Citadel."

"And Ashley," Shepard asked, his voice betraying no emotion.

"I've done what I can for her. She needs proper medical attention soon."

Nodding, John pushed himself away from the console, and began walking out of the room. He stopped, though, when Liara spoke again.

"The admiral's right. It's going to get worse, isn't it?"

Turning to her, John answered, "Unless we stop the Reapers, yeah it is." Then, he continued out into the War Room.

Following him Liara spoke up again. "I've looked at the data. These ships could be the answer, if we can build enough of them." She paused for a moment, and then said, "I get the sense that you don't quite believe it, though."

_Am I that obvious,_ John thought.

"You didn't see what they did to Earth. How are a handful of really big ships supposed to stop them?"

"What are our options," Liara asked rhetorically. "Even with all the preparations the galaxy has made, from what we've seen today we still won't win this conventionally, not without more firepower. Isn't it worth trying, at least."

"I'm gonna go check on Ashley, James, and Tali," John said, without answering Liara's question. He walked towards the exit, but then stopped, and said, "Make sure we're ready to prevent our findings to the Council."

"I'm sure that they'll see the need to help," Liara responded.

_Yeah, right,_ John thought; his opinion of politicians was low to begin with, but his opinion of the Council sank even lower than usual. There were days where he wondered why he saved them during the Battle of the Citadel at all. However, he kept these thoughts to himself, and simply replied, "It'll be a hell of a short war if they don't," and left the room.

Passing through the security checkpoint, he greeted the two marines standing guard, and headed toward the elevator, to make good on his word and check in on Ashley and Vega. However, as he was about to push the button that would send the elevator to deck 3, his Omni-tool began beeping, indicating he had a new message. Activating the device, he opened the message section, and opened the new communiqué.

_Shepard. Deck one. NOW. _

_Tali_

_Oh, boy, _John thought. He briefly considered hiding, but quickly realized that would only make things worse, so he reluctantly pressed the button for deck 1. He felt the lift rise upward, then it stopped and the doors opened. Stepping out of the elevator, he walked to the door to his quarters, which was also the only other door on the deck, and entered the room. Tali was standing near the left side of the room, staring at the empty fish tank with her arms crossed across her chest. Merely by looking at her, John could tell she was angry. He just needed to figure out what for; there was no sense in confessing to a crime he wasn't being accused of yet.

"Tali," he said tentatively, letting the quarian know he was there. When she didn't move, Shepard walked up to her, and said, "You wanted to talk?"

There was no warning. Shepard barely even saw any movement. All he knew was that his neck snapped 90 degrees to the right, his left check had a three-fingered red handprint on it, and he staggered back several steps. Holding his face, he looked back at Tali, who was now glaring at him in fury.

"What the hell was that for," Shepard demanded, feeling that being slapped was a gross overreaction to whatever it was that was bothering the women.

"You," the angry quarian shouted, and John knew immediately he had best keep he mouth shut for the time being. "I trusted you. I gave myself to you. And now I find that you've stabbed me in the back!"

Blinking in incomprehension, John stuttered, "I'm sorry, what?"

It was the exact wrong thing to say. Tali's eyes widened, she stood up straighter, and hissed, "You did not just say that. You did not just say that you don't know what I'm talking about."

John was about to say that he didn't understand, but as he opened his mouth, a suspicion as to why Tali would be this upset with him came to mind. Deciding to test his theory, he asked, "Is this about Ashley?"

His suspicion was immediately confirmed when Tali stormed forward until their faces were barely an inch apart. "You told me you were finished with her! You told me didn't have feelings for her anymore! And yet, there you were crying and swooning over her!"

"I AM done with her!" Shepard shouted, the volume of his voice overpowering Tali's. "I DON'T love her anymore! But that doesn't mean I want her to DIE!" Tali glared at John, then turned her back on him. Shepard was extremely aggravated, as well as confused; this sort of behavior was very unlike her.

Deciding to take a different road then screaming, John lowered his voice, and said, "Tali, I never lied to you; I AM done with Ashley. I DON'T love her anymore; I don't even know why I ever did! I love you. And I will never leave you, not for anyone, and especially not for someone who abandoned me."

For a few moments, nothing happened. Then, Tali slowly turned, looked at him out of the corner of her eye, and said, "Prove it."

"Yes, ma'am," Shepard immediately said, happily surprised that the argument might be resolved this quickly. "What do you want me to do?"

Tali turned to face him, and then did something that shocked John even more than hitting him; she reached up, and began undoing the clasps that kept her helmet on.

"Tali, what the HELL are you doing!" John screamed, jumping forward and grabbing her wrists.

"Let go, John," Tali said slowly, emphasizing each word.

"Why," the commander demanded. "So you can commit suicide by bacteria?"

"Stop overreacting Shepard," Tali said in a tone that would book no disagreement. "I've still got antibiotics in my system from…earlier, and my immune system has almost completely adapted to you anyway."

"Alright," Shepard muttered reluctantly, letting go of Tali's wrists. "But I still don't think that this is a good-" he was interrupted by a slight hiss as Tali's helmet came off, and his mind once again blanked when he saw what was behind it.

Tali'Zorah was magnificently beautiful, even by human standards. Her skin, though extremely pale due to her being in her suit her whole life, was a lovely shade of violet. Her eyes were luminescent silver that seemed to glow with their own light, and her long, thick hair seemed to come off of her in waves. And, as usual, Shepard was completely enthralled.

Right up to the point when Tali pounced onto him, knocking him to the ground and causing him to smack the back of his head on the metal floor. Hard.

"Ow," he groaned, stars and colors flashing across his vision.

"Keelah!" Tali gasped, sitting upright and covering her mouth with her hands, mortified by what she had just done. "I'm so sorry, Shepard, I didn't mean-"

"Get back here, beautiful," Shepard muttered playfully, then reached up, grabbed her shoulder, and pulled her down close enough to kiss her on the check. Tali smiled, seeing that her roughhousing was forgiven, and pressed her lips against John's.

-0-

Several minutes later, the enamored couple was lying together on the cabin's abnormally large bed, holding each other as though their lives depended on it. Shepard rested his head on top of Tali's, burying his face in what seemed to be an ocean of hair, and inhaled deeply. He loved the women's scent; he couldn't think of anything that smelled like her, only that it was _her_ scent.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to him, which caused his eyes to snap open and his head to snap up. Looking Tali in the eye, he asked, "You started that argument simply to do this, didn't you?"

The quarian blushed, averted her eyes, and whispered, "Maybe."

With an expression of mixed exasperation and amusement, he kissed her on the nose, and whispered, "You are absolutely evil. And I am okay with that."

Then Shepard remembered something important. "Ah, Tali, weren't you supposed to check in with the other quarian Admirals?"

Tali jumped as though she had been electrified. "KEELAH! How could I have forgotten that! Han'Gerrel and Shala'Raan must be going out of their minds!" Leaping off the bed, she grabbed her environmental suit, and began trying to shove her feet back into it. Looking back at John, she half-shouted, "Come on, Shepard; help me get this thing back on!"

"Ah, do I have to?" Shepard complained. "You look so cute hopping around like that."

If looks could kill, the glare Tali gave him could have broken Luna in half.

**A.N. **

**I'm sorry that this chapter is so short. I had planned on making it about twice as long, but I have come down with a severe case of writers block. I will get the plot moving forward as soon as I can, I promise. **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The crew on the bridge of the Neema cheered as the final Reaper invading their new home system was broken, melted, and finally blasted to bits by the Thanix shell fired by the Rayya; the three liveships, once food producers of the Quarian fleet, had been outfitted with military grade kinetic barriers, armor several feet thick, and dreadnought class Thanix Cannons. They didn't look pretty, but they could hold their own against any warship.

Admiral Han'Gerrell vas Neema sighed and collapsed in his seat, exhausted and relieved that the battle was over. Barely an hour and a half ago, a Human System's Alliance outpost had sent the Quarian Admiralty a priority message over their new quantum entanglement communicator; the Reapers had arrived, were ransacking Earth, and five hundred Reapers were speeding their way to Tikkun. The outpost was destroyed by said Reapers soon after, but the message was already sent, and because it was not sent over the relays comm channels the attacking Reaper fleet had been unable to detect it, and were unaware the quarians were warned of their coming. When the first of the machines had come through the mass relay, they had found themselves running straight into a massive crossfire. The quarian fighters and frigates had focused on the smaller Reapers, dubbed Destroyers, while their cruisers focused on the larger, Capital class ships.

For the first part of the battle, it was simply been a matter of smashing the enemy as they had exited the relay's corridor. However, as the fight went on, they began arriving in larger and larger numbers, formed a battle line, and began to return fire. However, the admirals had planned for this, and Admirals Shala'Ran vas Tonbay and Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib had led a triple-pronged counter-attack, coming down on the Reapers from above, below, and their right flank. The machine's line was quickly broken, as the enemy ships began firing in all directions. With the pressure taken off Han's ships and with the assistant of Zaal's newly remade liveships, the remaining Reapers had been picked off to the last vessel; due to the massive debris field from their destroyed brethren, they were unable to retreat to FTL.

"Sir," one of the crew members shouted to Han, causing him to jump. "We are receiving a message over our QEC. I believe that it is Admiral Zorah!"

For one insane moment, Gerrel thought she was talking about his childhood friend, Real, but then remember that he was dead, and his daughter Tali had taken his place. "Captain, take over," he shouted, then immediately set out to the ship's communication center. Entering the small room and pressing the button to accept the transmission. And an instant later, an image of Admiral Tali'Zorah vas Normandy appeared before him.

"Han!" Tali exclaimed, relieved that her father's friend was alright.

"Tali!" Han replied. "Praise the ancestors, you're alright! After we learned Earth had been hit, we lost you. Raan has been hysterical. Where are you?"

"I'm with Commander Shepard, on the Normandy," Tali explained. "We're heading to the Citadel, to try to get the Council into the fight. And Han, you and the other admirals need to prepare the fleet; the Reapers my launch an attack on Tikkun."

"They already have Tali," Han revealed.

"What?"

"The Reapers have already launched an assault on us, Tali. We've only just defeated them, just now. What is the situation at Earth?"

The women lowered her head, and muttered, "We lost, Han. The Reapers just barreled over Earth's defenses. The hit so fast and so hard, and there were so many of them the Alliance forces were overwhelmed."

"Damn," Han cursed. Losing Earth, the homeworld of one of the more powerful races in the galaxy, in the opening moments of the war was sure to have strike a major blow to the moral of the galaxy in general. Finally, he said, "Well, there's not much we can do about it now. Go to the Citadel with the Commander, and get the Council's support. The other admiral's and I will coordinate with the Alliance against the Reaper advance; you can bet more of them are already on the move."

"Very well, Han," Tali replied. "Ancestors watch over you."

"And you as well."

0-0

Shepard stood in the Normandy's Conference Room, looking at whatever details of The Battle of Earth he could find, while Tali got in contact with the Flotilla. From what he could tell, the first indication that things were going south was when Alliance listening posts had detected thousands of ships entering Alliance space from the Batarian Hegemony. A call to arms had immediately gone out, as many in the Navy believed that the Batarains were invading. However, the truth, when learned, was much worse; the ships were not part of an invasion fleet, but a refugee fleet. And they had all told the same story; massive warships of unknown origins had appeared, almost completely destroyed the Hegemony's navy, and reduced every single one of their worlds to warzones; even Kar'shan, their homeworld, had fallen.

As soon as they had learned this, the warning had gone out; the Reapers had come. The Alliance Parliament was evacuated from Arcturus Station mere moments before the first wave had hit. Unfortunately, the Fleets defending the station had been forced to retreat in the face of annihilation, and the tens of thousands of people still on the station had been killed when the Reaper's bombarded it to rubble.

After Arcturus was laid to waste, the Reaper vanguard fleet, which numbered twenty-five hundred strong, split into three parts. One thousand went deeper into Council space, five hundred headed towards the middle of Alliance territory, while the other thousand attacked Earth, which was defended at the time by the Fifth, Second, and Third Fleets, which had a combined strength of two hundred ships of various classes.

Surprisingly, the battle over the planet had initially gone well. The first wave of Reapers mainly consisted of a smaller, less powerful form of the ancient machine race, dubbed Destroyers. It was clearly a mere distraction to destroy and drive off the fleets while the main force assaulted the planet itself. However, the Alliance proved more of a threat than the synthetics anticipated. This was due mainly to the Thanix Cannon; when the Normandy had first test fired the new weapon, they found that it gave the frigate the firepower of a cruiser's mass accelerator cannon. Similarly, a cruiser's Thanix Cannon gave the mid-class ship the power of a dreadnought, and a dreadnought could now go toe-to-toe with a Capital class Reaper. Combined with better kinetic barriers and more resilient armor, the Alliance had easily massacred this advanced guard.

However, this small victory quickly turned into a massive defeat once the second wave arrived. Having immediately learned of the human's new defenses and weapons, this assault had the two kilometer long Capital Reapers as the spearhead, with Harbinger, the de facto leader of the sentient ships, at the center. They had, quite literally, smashed through the Second Fleet, claiming up to two thirds of its vessels, before landing and assaulting the surface. They had even forced the K2 into Earth's atmosphere, which was why Shepard had found it over Vancouver. It was fortunate that the new Krakatoa-Class dreadnoughts were designed to be able to enter a planet's atmosphere in order to provide fire support against Reapers with minimal collateral damage; otherwise it would have been crushed under its own weight. Hackett had ordered the warships to target Harbinger, but the other Reapers had shielded him from the onslaught.

From there, the Reapers landed on the planet and laid waste to its cities, industrial centers, shipyards, and anything else of strategic importance. Some remained in close orbit, dropping pods containing human husks and the new batarian variety, which had been dubbed Cannibals due to their habit of consuming their fallen brethren. This action healed them, gave them a piecemeal set of armor plating, and increased their intelligence which allowed them to make better use of cover, elevating the Cannibals from gun-toting cannon fodder to semi-competent infantry units.

During this time, Hackett had positioned his cruisers and dreadnoughts to bombard the Reapers from above, while sending fighters and frigates to harass those still in orbit. This was moderately successful in that many Reapers were destroyed on the ground, as it seemed the machines needed to weaken their shields in order to lower their mass enough to land on the surface. However, soon after, Hackett had received a warning that Reaper reinforcements were inbound. He had ordered a retreat in order to save the remaining ships, but Harbinger and his brethren were not finished with them yet; they had laid an ambush for the retreating defenders at Jupiter, as the gas giant's intense heat and radiation had shielded them from scans. Hackett had been forced to sacrifice the remaining ships of the Second Fleet to cover the Third and Fifth's retreat, though he had ordered the Second's dreadnoughts and carriers to retreat with the remainder of the vessels.

All in all, it was the worst military defeat in the history of humanity; in a matter of a few hours, the Reapers had struck straight at Earth, smashed through its defenses, and seized uncontested control of the system. And while the causality ratio, 269 Reapers to 67 Alliance warships, appeared in their favor at first glance the fact remained that the Alliance navy consisted of only 2,000 warships while the Reaper fleets numbered in the thousands. This meant that the Alliance had lost no small amount of its fleet strength in a single battle and the enemy's numbers were hardly scratched.

His musings were interrupted, though, as he heard the door to the war room open and Tali stepped out. Walking up to her, he asked, "Did you get in contact with them?"

"Yes," Tali replied. "They just fought off an assault be the Reapers."

"What?" Shepard exclaimed, blindsided by his girlfriend's statement.

Tali explained the basic information of the attack being detected, the quarian fleet setting up its ambush, and the battle that followed. Shepard listened intently, impressed by the quarian's stunning success; they possessed the largest fleet in the galaxy sans their new foes, but the vast majority of their fleet consisted of civilian ships that had only recently been outfitted for combat and who's crews had never been in a single major battle.

"Casualties," he asked once she had finished her account.

"The fleet lost 33 ships," Tali replied. "Mainly light frigates and unmanned vessels that we were using as shields; they were so broken down we were considering abandoning them anyway, which should tell you just what shape they were in. As for the Reapers, Han says they destroyed five hundred of them."

Shepard mentally adjusted his figures to include this new data; 769 Reapers to 100 of their ships.

"So," he said, a humorless smile on his face. "This war is starting out strangely; one crushing defeat immediately followed by a stunning victory. I don't even want to know what the other thousand Reapers are doing right now."

"The other thousand?" Tali asked, her eyes widening in horror.

Shepard opened his mouth to explain about the machine's three part attack, but was interrupted as Liara came sprinting into the room, a look of pure horror on her face.

"Liara, what's wrong," Shepard asked, already dreading the answer.

"The Reapers," Liara gasped. "They….they've just attacked Palaven."

John felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach. Palaven was the homeworld of the turians, the race with the largest and most powerful military in the Milky Way. Taking their homeworld would crush the moral of not only the turian race, but the galaxy as a whole. But Shepard was most concerned for the welfare of one of his greatest friends, Garrus Vakarian. Garrus had been with him only a few hours longer than Tali had. After his death at the hands of the collectors, the turian, disillusioned with the bureaucracy of the Citadel, had gone into the Terminus Systems, which had no semblance of organized government, to begin a one man campaign of annihilation against the sectors criminals. He eventually gathered a group of like-minded people to his cause. Unfortunately, one member of the group, a turian named Sidonis, betrayed them to the local mercenary groups, and all the remaining members of the group except Garrus were killed. Shepard had arrived just as the mercenaries had been preparing for their final assault on his friend. They had escaped, but Garrus had been badly injured. Later in their mission against the Collectors Garrus had located Sidonis and tracked him down on the Citadel, intending on killing him. Shepard, who had accompanied Garrus on the mission, managed to talk Garrus out of his plot, though he hadn't done it for Sidonis's sake but for Garrus's; he had been deeply disturb by his friend's obsession with his vengeance.

After Shepard had turned himself over to the Alliance, Garrus had returned to Palaven at the request of the turain government, and with Shepard on lockdown, he had heard nothing of him since.

He felt a small hand grab his shoulder. Snapping out of his panic induced trance, he turned to see that it was Tali, who then pulled him into a strong embrace.

_This has to end, _Shepard thought, burying his face in his lover's shoulder. _As quickly as possible._

oo-00-oo

A few hours later, the Normandy arrived at the Citadel, and docked at Docking Bay D24, which the Alliance had set aside as the Normandy's personal dock. A team dressed in medical uniforms, who had been waiting for the ships arrival, came through the airlock, went down to the medical bay, moved Ashley onto the mobile hospital bed they had brought with them, and began rushing back to the Citadel.

"Where are you taking her?" Shepard managed to call out.

"Huerta Memorial Hospital," one of the aids called over his shoulder. Then the airlock doors closed, leaving Shepard standing alone, hoping that they would be able to save her.

After waiting a few moments for Tali, Liara, and James to join him, he exited the Normandy with them. While they were walking toward the elevator to head to the Humanity's Councilor, Donnel Udina, they heard a bright, cheerful voice calling out to them.

"Commander! Commander Shepard!"

Turning to his right, he almost groaned as he saw a reporter racing up to the group. However, his demeanor brightened somewhat when he saw what specific reporter it was; Emily Wong. He had worked with her several times during his hunt for Saren three years ago, and found she was a very likable person. Like most in her profession, she was determined to uncover the absolute truth, but never to the point of being obnoxious about it and, to his knowledge, never distorted the facts.

"Emily Wong," John replied, nodding his head in greeting. "What can I do for you?"

The reporter blushed slightly, and then said, "Well, you remember your promise for an exclusive interview three years ago? I'd like to cash it in."

Shepard thought about it, then said, "Well, doing an interview now would make me late for my meeting with the Council…. So sure!"

Tali slapped her hand against her visor, and James burst out laughing, saying, "Damn, Commander, you REALLY don't like politicians." Liara shook her head, then said, "I'll go on ahead," and entered the elevator.

Meanwhile, Emily had pressed a few buttons on her Omni-tool to activate her camera drone. As soon as the little machine began recording, the reporter questioned him about his escape from Earth, as well as the battle in general. During that time a small crowd had gathered listening to the interview, and the people's reactions changed alternately from hopeful to distress. When he described the Qurian Flotilla's victory, though, everyone within earshot cheered. When she tried to ask about why the Normandy left the Sol system later than the rest of the human fleets, however, Shepard avoided the question; the discovery he had made on Mars needed to remain confidential for as long as possible.

"Do you have any other questions, Miss Wong," John asked once the reporter saw that his lips were sealed on that particular subject.

"Only one more," Emily responded. "Commander, about the war…. Normal strategy would dictate that we should launch hit and run attacks on our foe's supply lines, but the Reapers don't really have supply lines."

"That is correct," Shepard answered.

"And we can't simply blast everything on a conquered planet from orbit or else we would be destroying whatever is left of our own colonies?"

"Also true."

"Well, how are we supposed to beat them?"

John smiled grimly. "That is very simple, Emily Wong. We kill them all." Speaking to the audience in general now, he continued. "The Reapers have the largest and most powerful fleet in existence, but their numbers are finite. We can always build new warships, train new soldiers and sailors. However, building a new Reaper is a long process that requires vast amounts of both resources and time."

He decided not to say exactly what resources those were.

"Therefore, they will have to fight this war with the fleet they began it with. If we play our cards right, and wear them down, we _will _defeat them. We simply need to hold out, inflict as much damage on them as possible, and ensure our casualties are minimal. It will not be easy, God knows that it won't be, but it can, and _will_, be done."

The audience cheered once again.

Once the crowd had dispersed, Emily Wong spoke into her camera drone, ending the segment, stopped recording, and thank John for his time. As the reporter was walking away, however, Shepard had an idea.

"Emily," he called, causing the woman to turn. "What would you say if I invited onto the Normandy to report on the ships exploits during the war?"

The asian reporters jaw dropped, and her eyes went as wide as portholes. "Can you do that?"

"I believe so," Shepard replied. "Two conditions, though; I review all your pieces on the ships adventures, and retain full veto power over anything you put in them. Alright?"

Emily, still in a daze, nodded.

"Good," John said, grinning slightly. "Any questions?"

The reporter's eyes flashed back and forth for a few seconds, and then asked, "How much gear can I bring?"

"One footlocker."

Emily straightened up, smiled widely, and said, "Thank you Commander. I'll get my effects and equipment, and be on board as soon as possible."

"Good to hear," Shepard replied. "Unfortunately, I have procrastinated long enough; I will see you on the Normandy."

**A.N. **

**There. I have explained why a dreadnought was in Earth's Atmosphere. **

**And no, Diana Allers will not be in this fic in any way, shape, or form. While I don't loath the character as a lot of people do, she was completely unnecessary and simply should not have been there. **

**Also, I have downloaded and played through Extended Cut DLC, and it was, at least for me, satisfying. It didn't fix everything- Starbrat, for instance, still needs to take a hike- but my faith in the Mass Effect franchise and Bioware has been, for the most part, restored. **

**However, Bioware, if you are reading this, be warned that you are still on very thin ice; if you mess up Dragon Age 3 like this, I will never touch anything with your name on it again. **

**As for EA, there isn't much to talk about; they are dead to me. **


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Shepard took the familiar stairs to the council chambers two at a time, Tali struggling to keep pace with him. Councilor Udina's aide had directed them here, saying that the Council was already in session. Finally reaching the top of the area, the duo walked across the platform leading to the podium where those who wished to speak to the galaxy's ruling body stood, where Liara already stood. Before he even reached the asari, however, he heard something that immediately set him on high alert.

"We've got our own problems, Udina," the Turian Councilor, Sparatus, said. "Earth is not in this alone."

Shepard grimaced. Of all the Councilors, he disliked Sparatus the least. Yes, he had been an enormous pain in the ass during his tracking of Seran three years ago, but after his resurrection he found that the turian was one of the most effective, efficient, and cooperative galactic leaders as the powers that be prepared for the Reaper onslaught. At least, he WAS until right this moment.

"But Earth was the first Council world hit," Udina countered, not noticing the first human Specter's presence. "By all reports, it faces the brunt of the attack. And need I remind you Councilor, that at this very moment, the Alliance 21st and 23rd fleets are already assisting your forces with the defense of Palaven, along with five marine divisions. Seeing as how humanity has already devoted such a force to defend _your_ homeworld, I fail to see how you cannot help protect _ours._"

"Earth faces the brunt of the attack by _your_ reports," the salarian councilor, Valern, interrupted. "And you are not the only ones under assault; our long range scouts have already detected _more_ Reaper fleets headed toward asari, elcor, and salarian space. If we lend you our ships, our own worlds will fall."

"We must fight this enemy together," Udina insisted, surprising John his zeal.

"So this is your plan?" the asari councilor, Tevos, questioned. "We gather all of our armies and fleets and follow you blindly to Earth? If this is plan A, I hardly consider it a wise course of action."

"Which is why we have a plan B," Shepard announced, making his presence known. Once he had the Council's attention, he continued. "But we need your help if it is to succeed. Everything you can spare."

Tevos spoke up again. "Commander, we are all under attack with our backs to the wall. We need all the resources we can find to keep the Reapers from destroying us. What plan could you have that could justify energy and manpower that could be sent to our fleets and armies?"

Shepard gestured to Liara, who pressed a series of buttons on her omni-tool, bringing up the blueprints they had salvaged from Mars. "Councilors," the asari researcher began. "We have that plan. We found these blueprints in the Mars Archives. They detail the construction of warship even larger and more powerful than a Capital-Class Reaper."

"How powerful is this vessel?" Sparatus questioned.

"Powerful enough to attack twenty Sovereign sized ships at the same time, and win with minimal damage at worst," Liara explained. "If enough of these warships could be built, we could easily stall the Reaper advance, and begin preparations for a counter-attack."

"The scale is…" Valern began, before breaking off and starting again. "To build any significant amount of these ships would be a colossal undertaking."

"No more than the galaxy has already done in the past two years," Shepard reminded the salarian. "I've already forwarded the plans to Admiral Hackett. The System's Alliance is already gathering resources to begin construction."

"Have you considered the fact that the Reapers defeated the Protheans?" Tevos questioned. "What good did these ships do?"

"The Prothean Empire was shattered when the Reapers began their attack and seized the Citadel and the mass relay network," Liara explained. "The construction of these vessels only had the support of a few dozen systems; far too few to complete them before the Reapers overwhelmed them. However, if all of us pool our resources, than it is very feasible to complete them in a timely fashion."

There was a moment of silence, than Sparatus asked, "Do you really believe that these vessels could defeat the Reapers."

"Liara believes that this will work, and so do I," Shepard immediately answered. "And even though I haven't always agreed with Councilor Udina, he is correct on this. We need to stand together, now more than ever."

Pausing, he looked each of the Councilors in turn, and finished with, "The Reapers won't stop at Earth. They'll destroy ever organic species in the galaxy if we don't find a way to stop them."

Several moments passed as the Council digested the information they had been presented. Sparatus was the first to respond.

"Commander, I can't spare you our ships or our troops, not while our own homeworld is under siege. However, I will have as many engineers, scientists, and construction teams sent to your project as the Hierarchy can spare. I'm sorry I can't give you more, but it is the best I can do." And with that, he walked off his podium, and exited the chamber. Shepard was angry at the turian, but not to an enraging degree; he could certainly see why Sparatus was doing what he was doing. And at least he wasn't completely turning his back on them.

Then, Tevos gave her answer.

"The cold and unfortunate truth is that while the Reapers assault the Systems Alliance and Earth's nations, the Asari Republics can prepare, and regroup."

There were very few people in the galaxy that could say that they had seen Commander John Shepard in an uncontrolled, ranting, spitting fit of rage. Councilor Udina, Councilor Valern, Liara T'Soni, and Admiral Tali 'Zorah were some of them.

"YOU BITCH!" the spectre roared. "YOU BLUE-HIDED, LEOPARD FACED **WHORE!** How many times have the other races of the galaxy saved your collective asses? The krogan saved you from the rachni! The turians and salarians saved you during the Rebellions! And humanity saved you from Sovereign! And now that WE need YOUR help, the moment OUR homeworlds' are BURNING, YOU LEAVE US HIGH AND DRY?"

Surprisingly, the asari did not shrink before the Commander's tirade, nor did she respond in kind. "I don't know what else to say, Shepard," she replied calmly. "I'm sorry." And with that, she left after Sparatus, leaving John shaking with fury. Internally, he began cursing his insistence on saving the Council from the heretic geth fleet three years ago; at this point, the eight cruisers and ten frigates the Alliance lost in the action would have been FAR more useful.

So focused on his internal ranting, he was caught off guard when Valern began speaking himself. "I can't grant you my people's full support, Commander," he began. "However, our 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 13th fleets are guarding areas of the Salarian Union that are not in immediate danger from Reaper forces. I will have them sent to assist weak points in the Alliance forces lines. And of course, our greatest scientists and engineers will assist in the construction of these warships, along with any supplies we can spare."

The Councilor turned to leave, but then added one last thing to the Commander. "And commander? Before you arrived at the Citadel, a war summit was called for all species in council space. If the Turian Hierarchy and the Asari Republics can secure their own borders, I'm sure they will again consider aiding you." And with that, the Salarian left the chambers.

"Shepard," Udina called. "Meet me in my office." The human councilor left the area by a different route than his peers, as John turned back the way he had came, followed closely by Tali and Liara.

As he retraced his steps back to Udina's office, John reviewed these new developments. It came as no surprise to him that the Salarian Union was the most forthcoming with aid to humanity; the two peoples had been on good terms ever since humanity joined the galactic community, as they were both liberal counterweights to the far more conservative asari and turians. As for the turians, it would be easy to chalk their mere token contribution to prejudice from the Relay 314 Incident, but John knew better than that; he had reviewed human-turian diplomatic relations that had taken place during his two year rebuilding, and they had improved significantly. It was obvious that their lack of military assistance to help Earth and the Alliance colonies under attack was simply the fact that their homeworld was under attack as well.

The asari, though…they had no reason not to commit. The Republics were currently facing only minor Reaper attacks on the fringes of their space. It was clear that the major Reaper assault was focused on the Alliance, the Union, the Hierarchy, and the quarian Flotilla, as any military expert would; these were easily some the largest military powers in the galaxy, and eliminating them early on would vastly ease the Reaper's genocide, and leave the asari without any allies to call upon. Tevos leaving the rest of the galaxy to go alone would do the opposite of help her people. How could she not see that?

These mental debates made the time it took to go Udina's office fly by, and he rentered the room to find the Councilor staring at out the window.

"They're a bunch of self-concerned jackasses, Shepard," Udina spat as soon as the three had entered and closed the door. "We might have a seat on the Council, but apparently humanity is still considered second rate."

"How could they be so blind," Shepard snarled to no one in particular. He was surprised at himself for a moment; never before did he believe he would be agreeing with Donnel Udina about anything.

"They're scared, and they're looking out for themselves," the Councilor replied, finally turning his head to Shepard.

"Our people are scared, and we are looking out for them the best we know how."

Caught unawares, the four turned to the source of the voice; Councilor Sparatus. Apparently he had entered the room without anyone noticing, and had been listening to every word said.

"Councilor," Udina said in a barely polite greeting.

Sparatus nodded to his peer, and then turned to John. "Commander, I can't get you what you need, but I can tell you how to get it. Primarch Fedorian is the one who called the war summit, but we lost contact with him when the Reapers hit Palaven. If he's still alive, than we need to get him out of our home system immediately. The Normandy is the only ship that can get in, retrieve him, and get out undetected."

"So far, you've only explained how _I _can help _you_," John said, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"It might seem that way," Sparatus replied. "But I know what you are planning to do, and a grateful Primarch would be a tremendous ally in your bid to unite us."

"We are at WAR, and you want me to play politician," Shepard snapped, grow more aggravated by the moment.

"If it gets you what you need, what does it matter?" Sparatus asked, before turning to a row of computers and began drawing up information John needed. Grumbling to himself, the Specter followed.

"Our intelligence suggests that the Primarch was moved to Palaven's largest moon. You simply have to land, retrieve him, and get him out of the system." Drawing a data chip from the computer, he handed it to Shepard, saying, "I've done all I can. The rest is up to you." With that, he turned, and left.

John looked down at the chip, and was about to place it in his pocket, when he heard Sparatus speak again.

"One more thing, Commander." Bringing up his Omni-tool, the turian pressed a few buttons, and Shepard felt his own hand-held computer activate as it received new data. "The Council has chosen to uphold your Spectre status," Sparatus explained. "And various resources will be made available to you." Finally finished, the turian exited the room.

"Well, that went well," John deadpanned.

"It's a start," Udina replied, apparently slightly more optimistic. "I'll see if we can't support this summit, move things along." He began typing on his personal computer, but stopped almost immediately, and shook his head in disgust. "The Council; you saved their lives, and for what? Apologies that boil down to 'maybe later'. If we don't move quickly, 'maybe later' will be an epitaph on a mass grave of eleven and a half billion people."

Before John could reply, Tali took a step forward, and declared, "I don't know what the other powers will do, Councilor, but the quarian Flotilla will support the Alliance and help reclaim Earth; you have my word on that."

"I appreciate that, Admiral," Udina said. The politician smirked, and continued, "If you had told me that one day the quarian people would be Earth's best chance of survival when we first met three years ago, I would have laughed you off the station."

"I wouldn't blame you," Tali replied with a chuckle. "Back then, the Flotilla was just a caravan to get my people from place to place; it's only now that our fleet has any level of offensive power."

"Speaking of which," John cut in. "Has there been any news from Earth?"

"There is constant news," Udina replied. "Almost all of it bad. Most of southern Africa is in chaos, and central Australia is now a landing ground for Reaper forces; they're unloading husks and indoctrinated batarian soldiers by the millions. The coastal areas are all under mandatory evacuation; anyone who does not leave is to be killed."

"That is completely barbaric!" Liara shouted, shocked by the Councilor's statement.

"We have no choice, Doctor," Udina said calmly. "Every person who stays behind is another husk or indoctrinated slave for the Reapers to exploit. We can't allow the Reapers any more of an advantage than they already have."

Udina paused, rubbed his temples, and continued. "From what we've heard, South America has already fallen; there are a few holdouts in the Andes Mountains and Rio de Junearo is still holding thanks to the N7 units stationed there, but aside from that the entire continent is under total Reaper control. As for the United North American States, they have the Reaper forces stonewalled at the Panama Isthmus and the Sierra Nevada Mountain range, but have Reaper forces dropping from orbit constantly. The surface-to-orbit Thanix cannons are the only reason they are still standing. Europe is holding strong as well; the area around London and southern Italy are the only areas the enemy has under any amount of control. Most of the Russian Federation past the Urals has fallen, but casualties are expected to be minimal given the low population. The Federation of China and the nation of India have evacuated almost all of their civilian population into a massive fortress built into the Himalayan Mountains. Those who are left are fighting the Reapers block by block in the countries' mega-cities, and along the old Great Wall; Thanix defense cannons are the only thing keeping the Reapers themselves from joining the fray there as well."

"Causalties," John asked.

Udina bowed his head before answering. "At least one million civilians are dead. The number is increasing astronomically, especially in areas under enemy control. Military casualties stand at 450,000, including militia groups."

"We lost the K2 during the initial invasion," John said, heart wrenching as he recalled the loss of the dreadnought.

"Unfortunate," Udina replied. "But not as catastrophic as it appears on the surface. The SSV St. Helens and the Vesuvius are mere days from completion, and the Etna and Unzen should be combat-ready within a month. Also, the Alliance Parliament commissioned two more dreadnoughts, the Warning and the Mauno Loa, mere hours before the invasion."

"What of the Reapers," Tali asked. "How much damage have they suffered?"

"At least 60 Reapers have been downed by orbital defense cannons," Udina revealed. "As for enemy ground forces, they stopped keeping track at two million dead."

The fact that Earth's defenders had, in one day, killed so many husks, cannibals, and indoctrinated slaves they had lost count, and the Reapers had even more to spare, disturbed John. It also made him realize the scale of their foe; even if they played their cards correctly, they could simply be swamped under a tsunami of flesh and metal.

"Well," Shepard said finally. "I had better get to Palaven, and get the reinforcements we need."

"I'll be here," Udina replied. "I need to muster whatever is left of our economy, and get as many people in the fight as possible. You do what you need to do, Shepard; I'll get you whatever support you require."

Nodding, and having found a measure of respect for the man he once hated, John left the room, Liara and Tali following behind.

oo-00-oo

A few hours later, the Normandy departed from its docking bay, and began heading toward the Mass Relay that would lead toward the Turian homesystem. However, before they could reach the transporter, a call came over the QEC from Admiral Hackett. Entering the War Room, John accepted the call, and watched as the image of the Alliance's military commander appeared before him.

"Shepard, I have a mission that I can only trust to you."

"Very well, sir," John replied. "I will get it done as soon as I've retrieved Primarch Fedorian from Palaven."

"Negative, Commander," Hackett immediately cut in. "This takes precedence."

Confused, Shepard objected with, "With respect, Admiral, this is likely our best chance to get the Turian fleet's assistance against the Reapers on our front. What could take precedence over that?"

"Excavation crews on Eden Prime uncovered a Prothean relic unlike any we have encountered before, and then dropped out of contact," Hackett revealed. "We sent a frigate wolfpack and the cruiser St. Petersburg to retrieve the artifact and find out what happened to the crew. They found the colony under attack by both Cerberus and Reaper forces, and were forced to retreat. Whatever it is those workers found, our enemy's both thought it important enough to risk a major offensive."

"Why not reinforce the St. Petersburg flotilla and drive them both off the colony?"

"The Reapers are pressing the attack across the Skyllian Verge," Hackett explained. "It's taking all of our strength to hold them off. We can't spare anything at the moment; we need to get this artifact using stealth, and the Normandy is the only one for the job."

Shepard was conflicted; rescuing the turian Primarch was the best chance they had at getting any appreciable reinforcements for the Alliance fleets, and he COULD invoke his Spectre status and ignore Hackett's order to do it. But in the situation they were in, he could not afford to alienate such a vital figure. Also, the Admiral had a point when he said that this discovery was of utmost importance; Harbinger and the Illusive Man wouldn't have committed forces that would give a wolfpack and its flagship cruiser pause if it wasn't.

"Very well, Admiral," John relented. "I will set course for Eden Prime immediately."

"Good to hear," Hackett replied. "Contact me after you've finished on Eden Prime. Hackett out." With that, the admiral's image faded, and disappeared.

"Joker," Shepard half-shouted into the intercom. "Change course for Eden Prime; we've got a package to pick up."

"Yes sir," the helmsman responded immediately. Shepard immediately felt the slight vertigo as the Normandy changed course to a different Mass Relay.

Turning, Shepard exited the Communications room, and entered the War room. Approaching the large holographic table in the center, which had up to the minute information on every battlefront in the galaxy, John activated the table, and pulled up the Skyllian Verge, in order to have a clearer understanding of what Hackett was dealing with.

It was actually going surprisingly well. Unable to go head to head with the approaching Reapers, the Alliance navy had adopted an attrition strategy against the synthetics; first, frigate flotillas lead by cruisers dropped out of FTL and attacked Reaper formations on their flank or rear, targeting the destroyers. Once the enemy turned to face them, the Alliance ships would scatter and retreat to FTL, while more flotillas dropped to sub-light speed and attacked the enemy from a different direction. Eventually, once the destroyers were eliminated, the process was repeated with the Capital Reapers, though more cruisers were added to the mix, and the frigates acted as diversionary targets. Finally, after the enemy force was a fraction of its former size, the Alliance forces would gather in one large armada, including carriers, cruisers, frigates, and occasionally dreadnoughts, and destroy the surviving capital ships with overwhelming force. This method of attack had already produced staggering success across the Verge; hundreds of Reapers, mainly destroyers, had been killed, with hardly any casualties.

John didn't hold out hope that this strategy would work forever, though; eventually, the Reapers would simply send more vessels than the Alliance could handle, and they would be forced to retreat. However, he then saw that Salarian and Quarian warships were already en route to front, meaning that the combined forces would be able to handle the larger Reaper attacks. John grinned; if the Reapers were already stonewalled now, than they would be forced to retreat once the turian fleet joined them; Earth might be reclaimed sooner than he thought.

"Hitting the relay now, Commander," Joker suddenly announced over the com. ETA to Eden Prime, 1 hour, 20 minutes."

"Copy that, Joker," John responded, already heading out of the War room; he needed to prepare.

oo-00-oo

By the time the Normandy arrived at Eden Prime, Cerberus and the Reapers were already at each other's throats. The pro-human terrorists had numerous frigates and cruisers, while the synthetic monoliths had brought a few dozen destroyers and a single Capital ship. The two forces were slugging away at each other, neither holding the upper hand for long.

Shepard, however, was more focused on ground-based resistance. He, Tali, Liara, and James were currently on their way to the dig site to retrieve the artifact. Lieutenant Steven Cortez was piloting their Kodiak shuttle, leaving the four of them to formulate their battle plan.

"Have you discovered anything about the nature of this artifact, Liara," John asked the asari.

She shook her head. "The dig crew made no mention as to what it was they found. They may not have known themselves. But I think we can rest assured that, whatever it is, it is better off with us than with Cerberus or the Reapers."

"Eden Prime," Tali whispered. "This where it all began."

"That's right," James said. "This is where you went up against Saren and his geth for the first time, no?"

"Yes," John confirmed, staring at the screen displaying their objective. "Three years…it seems more like three hundred. Lot of bad memories here."

"It wasn't all bad," Tali spoke up, trying keep him from lowering his own morale. "You found the warning that the Protheans left behind."

"There's that," John replied. Then, he smiled slightly, and placed his right hand on the side of Tali's helmet, where her cheek would be. "It also lead me to you. I suppose I can't complain too much." Smiling beneath her visor, the quarian leaned into his hand and placed her own hand on top of his.

Then there was a flash of bright light, and the two turned to see James Vega holding up his Omni-tool, having just taken a still picture of them.

"James," Shepard shouted, slightly offended at the man's actions. The marine just laughed.

"Sorry Loco, I couldn't resist; you two are the cutest couple I've ever seen."

"Loco?" Tali asked.

"It's his nickname for me," John explained. "'Loco' is a word in Spanish. It means 'crazy'."

"A fitting title," Liara snickered. Her comment also made the other two start cackling.

Just as Shepard was about to begin reaming the three out, Cortez's voice came over the com.

"45 seconds to touchdown, Commander."

"Alright everyone; get ready. Cortez, after you set us down, get a short distance away from the sight and keep a low profile; you're our only chance of getting of this planet."

"Roger that, sir."

Less than a minute later, the Kodiak came to a rest, the side door opened, and the squadron hopped to the ground, and spread out as they advanced. Behind him, John heard the sound of the Kodiak lift off, and fly away from the landing zone.

Advancing along the pathway to the dig site where the artifact had been found, the four came to a halt at a nearby bend. Motioning for the group to halt, John leaned forward and peeked around the corner.

Husks and Cannibals owned the dig site; the bodies of workers and Alliance soldiers were everywhere. The Reaper ground forces had already set up Dragon's Teeth, and were dragging the corpses to them to create still more husks. Even as he watched, one of the Teeth activated, impaling an Alliance marine and lifting his body high into the air.

Almost immediately, though, the corpse began to smoke profusely, and then burst into roaring flames. Within moments, the body was nothing but ash. John grinned humorlessly. This was the work of the Alliance's new Immolation cybernetic implants. Upon detecting the nanides released into the body by the Dragon's Teeth, the implants would cause the corpse to spontaneously combust, burning it to ash to ensure the body was useless to the Reapers. As soon as they had been proven effective, they had become mandatory for all Alliance personnel. There had been talk about making it mandatory for civilians as well, but the move had been challenged by civil rights activists and had been tied up in courts, ensuring the issue went unaddressed until the Reapers arrived and it was too late.

Drawing himself out of his musings, John noticed that their undead foes were almost all clustered around the Teeth. Motioning to James, the two soldiers pulled out fragmentation grenades, primed, and threw them simultaneously. The overlapping blasts destroyed the spikes, and killed all of the automatons except three husks and a cannibal. Tali immediately stepped around the corner and put a pistol round right in the cannibal's skull, dropping it before it could react. Liara finished off the husks by pulling them into a singularity, and then hitting the miniature black hole with a warp field. The result was an explosion of dark energy that reduced the husks to a pulp that splattered everywhere.

Liara signaled the "all clear", and the group moved forward again. They didn't get far, though, before a group of Cerberus Guardians came around the corner. John and his squad immediately took cover and opened fire on the terrorists, but the Guardians' shields immune to gunfire and explosions; not even Liara's biotics were making an impression. Shepard managed to hit two through their shields' peepholes and Tali brought down three by sending out her attack drone to electrocute them, causing them to move erratically and allowing the group to bring them down, but more reinforcements arrived behind the group.

Just when Shepard was about to order a retreat, the Guardians came under fire from their flank; more cannibals had arrived and were pumping rounds into the Cerberus formation. Several Guardians were killed before the rest brought their shields into place and killed the cannibals, and this also left the rest venerable to John's group, who immediately gunned the survivors down.

After that, the four moved quickly across the field to the dig site, not wanting to attract any more hostile attention. Turning another corner, the squad finally reached their target area.

"Cortez," John said into his com. "We've reached the dig site. No sign of survivors."

"Roger that, sir," the pilot responded. "Radio in when you're ready for pick up."

Taking his finger off the com button, Shepard turned and looked over the nearby river to the mountains nearby. Thick black smoke billowed behind them, and fires raged on several.

"This was a beautiful colony once," he murmured.

"These people survived Saren, Shepard," Tali immediately responded. "They can survive this."

John shook his head. "The lower reaches of Vancouver, where I grew up, were dark, filthy, and filled with smog and dust. I can easily see it as a warzone. Eden Prime doesn't deserve this."

"Nobody does," Liara whispered.

No sooner Liara finished her sentence than gunfire split the air. The four soldiers immediately slammed against the side of the building they were walking past, as John peeked around the corner.

What he saw was a battle royal between Cerberus troops and Reaper slave soldiers. Cerberus Troopers and Centurions gunned down husks and Cannibals, covering newly discovered, lightly armored soldiers that were setting up minigun turrets that unleashed a hail of bullets into the oncoming husk horde. As this was happening, more terrorist soldiers, armed with sniper rifles, were cutting down cannibals whenever they showed their faces out of cover. The Reapers, meanwhile, showing their usual distain for their slaves, kept dropping troop pods from the overhead husk transport, sending even more meat into the grinder.

"Commander," Vega said over the com. "We're never gonna get that artifact out of here with that transport dropping those techno-zombies on our heads."

_He's right,_ John thought, and immediately opened a line of communication to the Normandy. "Joker, you read?"

"Loud and clear, Commander," the helmsman replied.

"We need you to take out the husk transporter directly over our position. After that, hide at the outer edges of the system, and wait for Cortez to signal you for pick up."

"Copy. Coming in for attack."

For several minutes, Liara, James, John, and Tali all stayed huddled against the wall, as the battle raged before them. Finally, looked around the corner, and saw a Thanix round fly through the cloud cover and strike the husk transporter dead in the center. The vessel listed, shuddered, and finally fell to the planet's surface. With their reinforcements cut off, the Cerberus troops gained the upper hand, and finally finished off the vile fiends, though by the time they did their numbers were a fraction of what they were when the firefight started.

And Shepard wasn't giving them any time to breath.

A few hand motions later, and the entire group was on the move again. Tali and Liara both took cover at different piles of metal crates that abounded in the courtyard. James, meanwhile, charged directly at the last standing Centurian, his powerful shields and his Fortification shield absorbing the gunfire directed at him. Ending the field, he hit the Centurion with a right hook so powerful, Shepard saw AND heard the man's helmet and skull shatter. Pausing only to kill two Troopers with his shotgun, the marine took cover behind what a appeared to be a destroyed Cerberus mech.

While the enemy had been distracted with Vega, they hadn't noticed that Shepard had killed the two remaining snipers with his own Mantis rifle. Switching to his Shurikan sub-machine gun, he gestured to Tali and Liara, who both made their own contributions to the assault; Tali hacked the two remaining miniguns, which immediately killed the remaining Guardians before they knew what was happening, and Liara gave the same Singularity-Ward combo she had used on the husks to finish off the remaining Troopers.

Work done, the four made a bee-line for the elevator that according to their HUDs held the artifact.

"Liara, get that thing up here," Shepard ordered, while he and the other two set up a perimeter.

The asari immediately went up to the control panel and pressed the sequence that would raise the lift to their level. As soon as she saw what the artifact was, however, gasped and took a step back. "Goddess, that doesn't seem possible…"

"What's wrong, Liara," John asked.

Turning, and appearing very pale, she replied, "This isn't a Prothean artifact, Shepard."

As she finished that sentence, the elevator finally arrived, carrying what appeared to be a large cylindrical container.

"It's a Prothean."


	9. Notice of Retcon

Notice of Retcon and Codex Entries

**Hello, everyone. Sorry if you are disappointed that this isn't a real chapter, but I have something to bring to everyone's attention. After reading the reviews left by eriskbo, and having a discussion with Octo8, author of The First Human Spectre (go and read that story right now; you will not be disappointed), I have decided to go back and change several details about my story, specifically the galactic population, fleet size, and the name of the Quarians' new colony. The name I chose made no sense, the total population I put forward was ludicrously overestimated, and the fleet strength was too small. So, before I write any new content for this story, I need to go back and double check everything so that I can get it in order. **

**So, to tide you over, here are some Codex Entries to reflect the changes expressed in this story. **

**Codex Updated**

Fall of the Hegemony

After the demolition of the Alpha Relay and the annihilation of the Bahak system, tensions between the Systems Alliance and the Batarian Hegemony were on the precipice of war. Although they had next to no proof, the Batarians declared that Commander John Shepard was responsible for the systems destruction, as well as the deaths of 300,000 Batarian colonists and slaves, and demanded he be turned over to them. Although Shepard turned himself in to the Alliance and confessed to the deed, the Alliance Parliament, keenly aware of the essential role the Commander would undoubtedly play in the coming Reaper War, refused to extradite him, instead keeping him in a high security prison, and later secretly moving him to an apartment at Alliance Command in Vancover and keeping him under house arrest, in order to question him as to how best prepare for the Reaper onslaught.

Since then, the Hegemany became even more isolated from the rest of the galaxy; even the usual propaganda recordings became less common. From the time of Shepard's arrest to the Reapers' Arrival, every Citadel species made numerous attempts to warn the Hegemony of the danger, and attempted to bring the rogue state into the Citadel fold. The Hegemony ignored all such warnings until it was too late.

The information regarding the destruction of the Hegemony is largely based on the tales of fleeing refugees, and thus is largely unknown, but some basic facts have been established; the Reapers began their offensive by launching strikes at several small Batarian colonies near the edge of the galaxy, drawing large elements from their fleet to investigate the unknown force. After these battlegroups were in position, the Reapers sprang their trap; simultaneously, they annihilated all naval forces their attack had drawn out, and began an assault on Kar'Shan, the Batarian homeworld, and where the bulk of the Hegemony's fleet was stationed. Despite the proud boasts of their military's strength, the Batarian's fared poorly against the Reapers' overwhelming power, technology, and numbers; Kar'Shan fell within hours. With all major resistance crippled, the Reapers began mopping up the Hegemony's forces and colonies; it only took a month and a half for the rest of the Hegemony to fall. Then, the harvest began.

The Siege of Earth

After the loss of Acturus Station and the defeat of Earth's defense fleets, the battle for the human homeworld switched focus to the ground. Numerous Reaper destroyers and capital ships landed in major industrial centers and military installations, annihilating almost all resistance in their path. Within 24 hours, the casualty count was in the millions. Entire countries have been destroyed, and many others are on the verge of collapse.

In spite of this, the resistance of Earth's people has been, by all accounts, spectacular. While caught off-guard by the assault, most of Earth's 1.455 billion defenders (1 billion soldiers in various nations' militaries, the rest civilian militia) quickly rallied and stonewalled the invaders on almost all fronts. A large part of this can be attributed to communication between forces than the Reapers expected; numerous QECs have been built across the continents, and soldiers have been trained to use old radio communications once the comm buoys are destroyed. In addition, the Reapers suffered higher casualties in the space battle due to the Alliances new weapons and defenses, weakening their assault and allowing the defenders to hold their attacks, or in some cases push them off entirely. Currently, every major defensive line on the planet is holding strong.

However, despite all of this, the situation looks grim. More Reapers and their implanted slave soldiers arrive on the planet hourly, and while Thanix defense cannons have kept the skies over human held territory clear, the assaults on ground defensive lines grow more numerous and furious. Already, every nation on Earth has expanded its draft age to ensure a steady supply of reinforcements. Experts predict that, unless a relief force drives the Reapers from Sol, all significant resistance on Earth will fall in slightly less than 2 years.

The Battle of Palaven

Like Earth, the Turian homeworld of Palaven also came under attack in the opening hours of the Reaper War. Unlike Earth, however, the Turian Hierarchy had significant advanced warning of the synthetic assault thanks to QEC communications from the Alliance. By the time the Reapers invaded the Trebia System, the armies and ships of the Turian defense forces were already in place.

Despite this, the Reapers were able to break through the Turian homefleet, forcing them to retreat to FTL and regroup, allowing them to land ground forces at several locations. The defense fleet quickly reformed and counterattacked, but was unable to force the Reapers to retreat, and the space battle quickly turned into a blood-letting war of attrition. On the ground, the reaper husks, cannibals, and ground-based vessels were hammering away at the Turian defense lines, and were on the verge of breaking through on several spots, that would allow them to compromise hundreds of kilometers of territory.

Then, just as the Turians were preparing to retreat on all fronts, the Alliance 21st and 23rd fleets arrived in system, and struck the Reaper forces directly in the rear, sandwiching them between the two armadas and inflicting numerous casualties. Caught off guard by the sudden arrival of Alliance forces, the Reapers were forced to retreat to FTL themselves to regroup and call in reinforcements. At the same time, the Alliance ships began deploying the tanks and infantry units of 202nd, 254th, 293rd, 308th, and 345th marine divisions to the weak points in the Turian defensive lines, plugging the gaps and ensuring the husk forces remained bottled up. The Reaper fleet soon returned and renewed the assault, in space and on the ground, but, for the moment, the combined human and turian forces are holding strong.

Preparing for War: Human-Turian Relations

While Human-Batarian relations have always been heated, they are not the only species that the Alliance has clashed with; humanity made first contact with the turians in a three month long military action, called the First Contact War and the Relay 314 Incident by both species respectively. The campaign had far reaching consequences for both species; deep distrust and xenophobia were sown throughout human culture, and the Turian Hierarchy became deeply suspicious of humanity's military strength, as the campaign had ended with the Alliance 2nd fleet driving the turian forces from human space in a disorganized mob.

While the tensions have cooled in the thirty years since the war, it has only been in the last three that true bonds of trust have formed. Ever since the reveal of the Reapers, the two peoples have been making greater strides towards cooperation than most ever thought possible. Numerous projects have been completed co-operatively, as well as many training operations Alliance and Hierarchy soldiers have participated. There are still many on both sides, particularly veterans of the War and extremists groups such as Cerberus and Terra Firma, that decry better relations and maintain that aliens cannot be trusted, but in light of the coming genocide, such cries have fallen on deaf ears; most members of both species acknowledge the Reapers are the greater threat, and have set their personal feelings aside.

Where this new spirit of cooperation truly shows, however, is in the younger generations of the species. The recent recruits and conscripts of the Alliance and Hierarchy militaries were born after the First Contact War ended, and as a result do not have the same level of hatred towards each other. These young soldiers have been more than willing to work with units of the species that their elders would have them hate. There have even been reports of turians and humans in romantic relationships, although such pairings are extremely rare.

Preparing for War: The Asari

The first species to discover the Citadel since the Prothean extinction, the asari are currently the oldest, most powerful, and most influential species in Citadel space, if not the galaxy as a whole. Their fleet is second only to the turians in strength, as is their technology to the salarians. Their military, the famed Asari Commandos, is famous galaxy-wide as being the most well trained, well experienced elite force of any Citadel race. In addition to all of this, the asari are excellent diplomats, as almost all species find them attractive and compelling.

In spite of all this, the asari are woefully unprepared to face the Reaper attack. Often, the same things that made them strong against other races are their greatest weaknesses against these new enemies; their fleet is outnumbered, all their technology is inferior. The Commandos, in addition to their training regimen that lasts for decades, ensuring they cannot replace the undoubtedly large casualties in a timely fashion, are best at landing behind enemy lines and waging guerilla operations, which are worse than useless as the Reapers will isolate and indoctrinate them, corner them and simply wait for them to die, or even destroy the surface of the planet if they are inclined. Finally, the peoples' diplomats are completely useless, for the Reapers only negotiate with galactic races with the barrel of a gun. The Alliance and the Hierarchy have sent numerous members of their own militaries to instruct the Republics in the concepts of "traditional" warfare and levee-en-mass, but the mono-gendered race is having difficulty adjusting to such radical changes in strategy. Though the Republics' navy has kept pace with most of the remaining species', their ground forces are the cause of many sleepless nights.

Perhaps most damaging of all is the political stalling the race is facing. As a pure democracy, the asari have virtually no authority figures to rally behind within their own government. Compounding this problem is the fact that the Matriarchs, the oldest and most influential of their race, have been paralyzed by indecision and paranoia, due in large part to the betrayal of Saren and Matriarch Benezia. Unacquainted to the fast race that those of shorter life spans are used to, they are simply not able to cope. Things have gotten so bad that several large groups of asari, led by the Matriarch called Aethyta, have left the Republics in favor of assisting the other races, for, as their leader said, "If the asari are too *expletive deleted*stupid to save themselves, the least we can do is save something else."

While no one doubts that the asari will fight the Reapers, their effectiveness, and willingness to honor their alliances, have become a serious concern.

Krakatoa Class Dreadnought

One of the most remarkable features of the Reapers, particularly the Capital class vessels, is their ability to enter a planet's atmosphere and land on the surface. Ordinarily, such a large ship would be crushed under its own weight by the planets gravity. The synthetic leviathans, however, posses mass effect cores of such power that they can lower their masses to allow the skyscraper sized ships safe landings. Although they must weaken their shields significantly in order to provide the power required to allow this, the effectiveness of bringing dreadnought-sized ship based weaponry against ground targets has been obvious to everyone, and the Alliance was quick to try and make this power their own. Thus, the Krakatoa Class dreadnought was born.

The successor to the Everest and Kilimanjaro, the Krakatoa combines the armaments of the two previous classes; thanks to the invention of the Thanix cannon, capital ships can now mount both broadside and large frontal cannons. The main difference between the new generation of dreadnoughts and the old, however, is the mass effect core. The Krakatoas have much larger, much more powerful mass effect cores than the old versions, allowing them to safely enter a planet's atmosphere, although they still cannot land on the surface without suffering catastrophic damage.

The first two vessels of the new class, the Krakatoa and the Matterhorn, were first field tested on a sizable batarian slave trader base on the edge of the Terminus Systems, near Alliance colonies in the Attican Traverse. They performed near flawlessly; with the assistance of their cruiser and frigate escorts, all slaver and pirate ships in the systems were annihilated, and in the ground engagement that followed saw any fortifications near the dreadnoughts annihilated, as the criminals' anti-air defense cannons were only designed to hold off anything of cruiser weight down. The Krakatoa dreadnoughts were declared a complete success, and they were quickly sent into mass production. Only time will tell if they will be enough to hold back the coming tides.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Shepard felt his mind blank. A Prothean? Here? Alive? After fifty millennia? How could this be possible?

"You mean a Collector," James asked, missing the point entirely. Turning to Shepard, he continued, "I thought you and your crew wiped them out?"

"No," Liara corrected the marine. "This isn't a Collector; it is a Prothean. A real, unaltered Prothean! Who's still alive!"

"You're right," John whispered. "It doesn't seem possible."

"How can this be," Tali spoke up. "How could a Prothean have survived this long, even in stasis?"

"We've seen Prothean stasis pods before," Liara explained bringing up her omni-tool, and bending over to examine the cylinder. "The only reason those failed was due to a lack of power." After scanning the pod briefly, she stood back up, saying, "This one still has power, and its occupant's life signs are still good. All we have to do deactivate the stasis mode, and open the pod."

Realizing that the group was about to enter a First Contact scenario, Shepard decided to get as much information on the species he could. "Tell me what you know about the Protheans, Liara; we need this to go as smoothly as possible."

"I'm afraid that I don't know much," Liara admitted. "And given your experience with the Prothean Cipher, you probably know as much about them as I do." Taking another look at the pod, she continued, "The Prothean Empire spanned the known galaxy. They uplifted countless species to join them in their galactic community; it is obvious that they wanted other species to learn and grow, and that they supported knowledge, growth, and cooperation with the rest of the galaxy."

The way that Liara described the Protheans, like they were benevolent, god-like beings, caused Shepard no small amount of suspicion; he highly doubted the Protheans were as wonderful as she was making them out to be. No species was, not even his own. Especially not his own, come to think of it.

"Liara," John said tentatively. "This may be the ex-gang member speaking, but I highly doubt that the Prothean people became the dominate species of the Milky Way by playing nice ALL the time."

"Of course not," Liara replied. "It is logical to assume they possessed a formidable military as well. But regardless of what the Protheans were or were not, finding one alive now is an incredible opportunity."

Smiling, John said, "Well, it's a good thing that we brought our Prothean expert, then."

Liara blushed, and then knelt down at the end of the stasis pod. Pressing a small button on the cylinder, a section lifted up, then slid into the main body, revealing a holographic control panel. She attempted to deactivate the pod, and bring its occupant back to the world, but as the minutes passed, it became clear that she was not succeeding. Finally giving up, she stood, and explained, "I can't make any headway with this. I can't even hack through it; it seems that these pods were designed only to respond to other Protheans."

"Well, like you said, Shepard still has the Cipher," Tali cut in. "Let's have him take a crack at it."

With all eyes on him, John looked around, shrugged, and motioned for the squad to cover him. Collapsing his submachine gun and placing it on a clamp opposite his pistol, he began examining the consul. At first glance, he was baffled as to how to end the program, but the more he looked at it, he began to "sense" how the pod worked, and how to safely end the stasis field. Using his omni-tool, he sent the signal powering down the stasis, and then tentatively pressed a sequence of buttons. With a hiss, the door of the cylinder lifted up slightly, releasing a cloud of condensation as it did so, and then slid apart. Rising up, Shepard got his first look at the species once credited with building the Citadel and the Mass Relays.

The first thing that caught his attention was the Prothean's eyes; like the Batarians, they had four, except they were side-by-side, instead of having one pair above the other. It had no nose as humans knew them, but there were two nostrils were they would be on a human. The top of its head was covered with segmented natural armor that reminded him of insect plating. On the sides and back of its neck, there were thick tendrils of what seemed to be muscle, as though someone had cleanly cut a large chunk of the blue-green skin away. It was clothed in red armor, which reminded Shepard of the ancient samurai warriors. It also had two toes on each foot, and two fingers and an opposable thumb on each hand. Its entire body was still covered in the frost of the cryogenic stasis.

"It may take some time before he fully awakens," Liara explained when everyone looked at her for an answer when the Prothean failed to move.

Looking back at the figure in the stasis pod, John continued to note the lack of movement the Prothean exhibited. Then, it began to stir; the fingers began to twitch, the head moved to the side slightly, and the eyes opened slightly, the being's long sleep still clinging to it. Finally, the Prothean's four eyes fully opened, and it raised its head up slightly, freezing when he spotted the four unfamiliar beings. Trying to be diplomatic, Shepard extended his hand, an offer to help the alien to its feet.

The response he got caught all four of them off guard.

The Prothean shoved its hand forward, now covered in a blue-green glow that John immediately recognized as biotics, and struck them all with a push of dark energy that sent the group sprawling. Intially dazed by the attack, John quickly regained his feet, and spotted the Prothean struggling out of the stasis pod; its extended time in the device had clearly left it disoriented and weak. Seeing that Shepard was again on his feet, the alien immediately turned to flee, stumbling as he did so. Shepard, though slightly tired by the earlier fighting, would easily overtake the rusted ancient alien. Glancing behind, and realizing John was gaining on him, the Prothean redoubled its efforts to escape. However, it suddenly came to a stop upon seeing the mountain range before them, and the flames and smoke that crowned the far away ridge. Slowing his pace, Shepard approached the Prothean cautiously, hand outstretched, prepared for any further hostile movements.

"Be careful, Shepard," Liara warned. "Remember, it's been 50,000 years for us, but for him it's only been-"

John's hand conneted with the bare skin of the Prothean's lower arm.

oo-00-oo

"_-a few minutes. Repeat, all soldiers and civilians are to report to their stasis pods within the next few minutes." _

_The message was broadcast throughout the station. Shepard found himself walking down a hallway, holding some strange rifle, and with no control over his actions. At first he panicked, but when he saw numerous protheans surrounding him, he realized that he was somehow bearing witness to the alien's past life._

"_I never believed that our empire would fall," he heard from a prothean that was walking beside him. _

_Immediately coming to a halt, the alien whose life Shepard was reliving raised its arm to stop his comrade, and answered, "It will not. We will sleep until the Reapers return to Dark Space. Then, we shall rise again, a million strong, and reclaim what has been taken from us." _

_The second alien stood up straighter, clearly inspired by the small speech, and replied, "For the Empire!"_

"_For the Empire," Shepard's Prothean repeated. "Get to you stasis pod." The subordinate hurried to obey, laying down in a nearby cylinder. As it did this, the alien Shepard was seeing through turned and began speaking orders to apparently no one. "Victory, seal the complex and broadcast the activation signal to all stasis pods." _

_The instant that his orders were finished, a green hologram of a Prothean appeared before it, which Shepard immediately recognized as a Virtual Intelligence. "And the refugees who have yet to reach the bunker," the advanced computer program asked. _

_The Prothean was silent for a moment, and then answered, "Their sacrifice will be honored in the coming empire." The image of the VI nodded, and disappeared. The alien whose life John was reliving turned, and began heading toward its own pod. _

_Suddenly, an explosion ripped through the air, behind him and down the hallway. Immediately brining up its weapon, the Prothean turned and saw numerous insect-like aliens swarm through the fresh breach, aliens that John immediately identified as Collectors. Some were armed with their standard weapons, while others simply ran or flew at the Protheans, intending on rending them to pieces with their claws. _

'_NO!' the Prothean thought. 'Not here! Not now!' Immediately, it brought its rifle to bear on the oncoming horde, and pulled the trigger. A continuous green beam shot from the barrel and struck a weapon toting Collector in the chest, shattering and melting its natural armor plating. The Reaper slave fell to the ground, its torso turned to blue-green sludge. Those of the Prothean's kin had yet to enter their pods grabbed their weapons and joined it in fending off the Reaper slaves. Dozens of the Collectors fell, but more and more of the things poured through, and eventually the Protheans came under more fire than they could respond with. Three of the defending alien soldiers were cut down, one directly in front of Shepard's Prothean. _

_In response, the alien leader stretched out its arm, which was now wrapped in a bluish-green glow that John recognized as biotics despite the unfamiliar color, lifted up five Collectors into the air, and, swinging its arm to the side, sent the aliens flying into the solid metal wall, their bones shattering. Soon, the rest of the Protheans too began unleashing their biotics on the oncoming horde, but even with this added power, it soon became clear that the Protheans would not be able to hold back the Reaper assault; so many Collectors were pouring into the chamber so quickly they couldn't kill them fast enough. Even worse, they were beginning to destroy the stasis pods in the breached chamber. Realizing the situation was hopeless, Shepard's Prothean reached down, and, dragging a wounded comrade with him, began moving back. _

"_Victory," it shouted, "Seal the bulkhead!" Immediately, thick doors began to close in between the Prothean and Reaper forces. The unarmed Collectors, seeing that their prey was escaping, rushed forward to try to reach the aliens before the barrier closed, but the soldiers on the flanks of the Prothean commander lay down a murderous crossfire that cut down any drone that came anywhere near them. Finally safe on the other side of the bulk head, the doors slammed shut, ensuring the Collectors could not reach them, though the sounds of explosions as the Reaper slaves destroyed the stasis pods and their precious occupants could still be heard faintly…_

oo-00-oo

The Prothean fell forward, down on its hands and knees. Shepard flinched, shocked by the sudden ending of the vision and being plunged back into reality. Looking around, he saw that Tali, Liara, and Vega were just getting to their feet. John realized that his experience had occurred near instantaneously.

"How many others?"

Caught off guard by the question, John quickly realized that it had come from the Prothean.

"Just you," he replied.

A grunt of pain was his answer.

Before John could offer a word of condolence, he realized something; the alien's words weren't synthesized by his translator implant, the Prothean was speaking English.

"You can understand me?"

"Yes," it replied. "Now that I have read your physiology, you nervous system. Enough to understand your language."

"Then, you were reading me, while I was seeing…"

"Our last moments. Our failure."

Frowning at the Prothean's defeatism, Shepard stepped forward and, kneeling down, said. "You didn't fail. Your people never gave up, and thanks to you the galaxy has a fighting chance. And I could certainly use that kind of determination now."

Before the Prothean could respond, an alarmed Cortez began shouting in his ear. "Commander, you've been found out! Every Cerberus soldier and Reaper husk on the planet is inbound on your position!"

"Copy that, Cortez," John responded, immediately snapping back into battle mode. Turning to his comrades, who were only just recovering from the Prothean's biotic push, he ordered, "Everyone, we've got incoming; get yourselves in order, and prepare to hold out until extraction gets here."

Hearing footsteps behind him, Shepard turned to see that the Prothean had stood and walked back to his pod. "Asari… Human… Quarian…" it muttered, shaking its head. "I am surrounded by primitives!"

John took great offensive at the Prothean's insult, and was about to object, but then remembered that the alien had been in stasis for 50,000 years; the last time it had seen a member of any of their species' was when they had been living in caves and using animal pelts as clothing. So, instead of berating the potential ally for its reaction, he simply said, "It isn't safe here; will you join us?"

"You fight the Reapers?" the alien asked, giving the Commander a sideways glance.

"Yes."

"Then we will see," was the aliens ambiguous reply, as it reached into its pod and retrieved its rifle, checking it over for any damage and, satisfied that it was in working order, placed the weapon on a magnetic clamp over its right shoulder.

Again activating his communication device, John contacted the Normandy, saying, "Joker, start heading in to pick our shuttle up; we're going to need to make a quick exit here."

"Yeah, you aren't kidding," the sarcastic helmsmen responded. "Every Cerberus and Reaper ship in the system is making a bee-line for the planet; their battle formations have fallen apart, ships are firing in random directions, it's chaos!"

"Good, that will make sneaking past them with the shuttle and ship stealth systems all the easier. Be in contact soon. Shepard out." Turning back to his squad, he began issuing orders to his fire team, sending each member into cover in a nearby prefab building that would have to serve as their temporary fortress against the coming onslaught. He knew that their only hope was the fact that Ceberus and the Reapers were just as likely to kill each other as them. To his surprise, their new Prothean companion took up position in the prefab as well, in a manner that would best suit their defense. Clearly, the alien had advanced tactical knowledge.

Walking up to their newfound ally, Shepard caught its attention, and asked, "What do I call you?"

His reply was a long, hard stare. Just as John was beginning to think the Prothean wouldn't answer, he got his response.

"You may refer to me as Javik, Commander. Also, I would greatly appreciate it if you would cease referring to me as 'it'; I am not a mindless animal."

Taken aback, Shepard remembered that the Prothean, Javik, had been able to read his thoughts while he had seen the vision of his last battle, and began stumbling for a response. "I… I'm sorry, I just don't know your gender, or are your people mono-gendered, like the asari?"

Javik appeared disgusted at being compared to Liara's race, but answered, "I am male, Commander."

Shepard nodded, and was about to question Javik further, specifically as to what level of combat experience he possessed, but was immediately interrupted by James Vega.

"LOCO! We've got incoming!" Immediately, Shepard spun around, and spotted three small dots in the sky, approaching their position. Pulling his sniper rifle from his left shoulder, John gazed through the scope, and spotted three massive flying creatures that bore the unmistakable signs of Reaper augmentation; skin and muscle replaced with metallic coils and wires, and their heads were covered in small searchlights, sensors, and heavy cannons. Shepard quickly recognized them as Harvesters, large, dragon-like animals he had encountered in his quest to stop the Collectors, infamous for their propensity to deposit human-sized, fire-breathing klixen. That the Reapers found room in their arsenal for them did not surprise the Spectre.

Kneeling down, John rested the rifle against the windowsill, took very careful aim at the center harvester, and pressed a button on his wrist plate to activate his armor's built in stimulant injector. Immediately, his vision sharpened, his senses heightened, and time seemed to slow as synthetic adrenaline was pumped into his system. Exhaling, he made a few minor adjustments, and pulled the trigger.

With an earsplitting crack, the round exited the barrel, and half a second later, impacted on the joint where Harvester's right wing attached to the torso, shredding the synthetic muscle and heavily augmented skeletal structure. The few shreds that survived the bullet could not take the strain that the action of flying was placing on them, and the wing snapped off entirely. The Harvestor plummeted to the ground, a dozen husks spewing out of its underbelly; apparently the Reapers had designed the flying creatures to be troop transports as well.

Pulling back the bolt of the rifle, he ejected the spent thermal clip, slid a fresh one into place, took aim a second time, and fired again. This time, the round struck the rightmost Harvester in the head, damaging its sensors, and causing it swerve and crash into the final Harvester. As the two flailed to slow their fall, their wings tangled together, and the duo plummeted to the ground along with the ground forces trapped within.

The short silence immediately after was broken a shrill whistle. "Geez, Loco," Vega whispered, apparently in slight awe. "I've never seen anyone pull off a shot like that."

"Indeed, that was quite impressive" Javik commented, though clearly not as greatly affected by his marksmanship.

"Don't celebrate just yet," Shepard cautioned, again looking down his scope. "There are about four dozen more where that came from. And we still haven't even encountered any Cerberus forces yet."

"We have now," Liara interjected. "We've got ten Kodiak shuttles coming in from the opposite direction, with two Mantis gunships in support."

"Bring it on," James muttered, slamming a fresh clip into his assault rifle.

Every member of the group took up positions at the windows of the prefab building, weapons ready as Reaper husks and Cerberus soldiers closed in on either side.

**A.N.**

**Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I got a new computer game, Hearts of Iron 2, and it has pretty much sucked up all of my free time. **

**Also, I think I have all the changes to my first chapters made, so take a look. If you spot any inconsistencies, please let me know. **


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The roar of battle that resulted when the Reaper and Cerberus forces finally slammed into each other was deafening. The cannons of the Harvestors and Kodiak drop ships strafed each other, more than a few finding their marks. However, the Mantis gunships quickly turned the tide in the human terrorists' favor, being more maneuverable than the Harvestors, allowing the majority of the Cerberus drop ships to land and disgorge their passengers. Unfortunately, numbers were, as always, in favor of the Reapers, and more and more Harvestors flew up to take the place of the fallen. John managed down a handful with sniper fire, but soon he was forced to focus on the husks and cannibals advancing on his position and hope Cerberus air cover would take care of the Reapers for them.

The three way battle quickly dissolved into a blood bath; had a bird flown over the site, it would have seen Harvestors, Mantises, and Kodiaks swarming in all directions in the air, and on the ground, the two opposing forces arrayed in two curves, shooting each other across the no-man's-land separating them. Occasionally, an individual or group would make a break for the large pre-fab building at the center of the carnage, only to be killed or pushed back by a wave of bullets, particle beams, biotics, and tech attacks. Even more rarely, someone from the building would go out to the fallen bodies and retrieve thermal clips and grenades from the fallen Cerberus troops to relieve the defender's dwindling supply. Not soon after this fight began, debris began to rain from the sky; remnants of Reaper destroyers and Cerberus warships streaked down like meteors from a battle raging in orbit.

With anyone else in command, the miniscule third party in the very center of this melee would have sought some method of escape or surrender. John Shepard, though, had stopped the pirate raid on Elysium almost singlehandedly; compared to that, this was a training exercise.

Shepard and his squad were receiving no breaks; constantly running from one window to another, firing desperately at anything that moved. His M-8 Avenger seemed to never stop firing as he gunned down swarms of husks. Priming a frag grenade, he side armed it into a group of cannibals, turning them to pulp. Nearby, Tali dropped three Cerberus Troopers with headshots from her pistol, than hacked a Cerberus turret, turning it against its owners and allowing swarms of husks to overwhelm a Cerberus position. More slave soldiers tried to move in to exploit the new opening, but just as quickly as Shepard's team gave them an advantage, they took it away; Javik and James both tossed grenades into the reinforcements they sent to exploit the breach, and gunned down most of the survivors. Without the needed support, Cerberus regained that toehold, but now having lost half the men originally guarding it, who immediately come under fire from still more Cannibals.

Spotting movement just beneath the window he was taking cover near, John peeked over the sill, and found a Cerberus Trooper below him, prepping an M-560 Hydra missile launcher. Unsheathing his Omni-blade, he stabbed the terrorist through the head, stole the launcher and its ammo, and retreated into the building. Opening a hatch on the roof, he aimed the Hydra out into the open sky where dozens of enemy flyers swarmed, charged the weapon, and released the trigger. Eight missiles flew into the air, homing in on their targets, five Harvestors, two Kodiaks, and one Mantis, impacting with three explosions each; the first would overwhelm kinetic barriers, the second would shatter and destroy armor, and the final would detonate inside the target and destroy it.

As was the case with the John's targets; eight flyers fell from the sky and crashed on the ground, crushing numerous Reaper husk soldiers and a few Cerberus soldiers. He quickly closed the hatch, slapped a reload into the Hydra, and placed the missile launcher on a magnetic clamp on his back. Suddenly, a group of three husks broke down the doorway that Tali had welded shut earlier, and attempted to rush them. Acting purely on instinct, John drew his submachine gun and pulled the trigger. The Shuriken barked as a trio of three-round bursts flew forward, each hitting one of the husks in their heads, necks, and torsos.

Immediately after the reanimated humans fell, though, Shepard's shields began to plummet; two cannibals were standing ready just beyond the doorway, pouring fire into him. Firing blindly, he managed to score a handful of small hits on the batarian husks, halting their fire long enough for him to take cover next to the door. Exchanging his submachine gun for his pistol, John aimed the Carnifex out of the door, and quickly pulled the trigger twice. With a sound that was between a shatter and a splat, the skulls of the cannibals exploded, and the husks slumped to the ground.

John smiled grimly. Getting headshots on cannibals was laughably simple. In boot camp, he had long since had the habit of aiming for the center of mass drilled into him by his instructors, as it was the easiest to hit and usually contained the most vital organs in organics and central processors in synthetics. Due to the Dragon's Teeth augmentation process, however, the Reapers had inadvertently placed the former batarians' heads _in _the center of mass, making dropping them with a single shot easy.

"Shepard!"

Turning to Tali's shout, he ran up to the quarian, who was across the room at a window overlooking a firefight between Cerberus Centurions and cannibals. "What is it," John demanded. When she pointed her finger out the window and toward the horizon, he looked to where she was indicating… and felt his blood freeze.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of Harvestors where speeding their way towards their position. It seemed as though the entire Reaper ground army on the planet was coming down on them. Which could quite possibly be the case; their new Prothean ally could have an untold wealth of information regarding them, information Harbinger would undoubtedly be keen to see they did not get. Even as these winged beasts flew in, Reaper drop pods began to rain down from the sky again.

"Liara, Javik, Vega," Shepard barked at the other three members of his squad. "Get over here now! Concentrate fire on the Reapers!" Getting on his comm. channel, he ordered, "Joker, Cortez, pick up the pace! We need evac, now!"

"I'm doing my best, commander," the shuttle pilot reported back. "But I'm having a hard time of it; it's mighty crowed up here."

"Same on my end," the Normandy's helmsman responded. This space battle is covering a whole hemisphere, Shepard; it's a maelstrom up here!"

"Just get here as quick as you can," John ordered, braining another cannibal with his Mantis rifle as he said it. As he switched to his assault rifle, Liara, James, and Javik reached their end of the building, and began laying down fire into the zombified horde. Cerberus had also ceased its efforts to attack them, and was concentrating on the ever growing number of Reaper soldiers pouring down on them. Husks and cannibals fell by the truckload, some scrapping the armor of the Cerberus troops or the walls of the lone pre-fab building as they fell. In spite of all this killing, though, the wave of adversaries never once slacked; drop pods came down from orbit near constantly, and the next wave of Harvestors was beginning to arrive.

Just as Shepard was prepared to give the order to break and run, in a desperate attempt to escape, he spotted a small dot rapidly closing behind the newly arrived Harvestors.

"Coming in hot, Commander," came the voice of Steven Cortez. The quickly approaching dot, which eventually became an Alliance Kodiak, began firing its forward cannons at the Reaper Harvestors. The cybernetic animals were no match for the high explosive shells, and many were blasted to bits with their "cargo" still inside.

"Everyone, get to the roof, NOW!" John ordered. Providing cover fire with Javik, John began cutting down cannibals that he could see, allowing Tali, Liara and James to climb the ladder up to be picked up by Cortez. Braining a husk, he called out to Javik, and motioned for him to follow the other three to the impromptu LZ. Just as the prothean turned to go, however, several rounds flew through the window, and struck the alien; most impacted on Javiks barriers, but the last broke through, and hit him in the side, breaking through the samurai-esque armor, and out the other side, spraying blood. Javik fell to the floor, groaning in pain.

Overcoming the shock of the attack, John fired five rounds into the cannibal's head and bloated torso, then fired a concussion round at a trio of charging husks, sending them sprawling. "Everyone, the prothean's down!" John shouted into his communicator. "I need covering fire to get him up there!" Immediately, gunfire sounded from the rooftop as his teammates began cutting down any Cerberus or Reaper fighters that they saw. Running over to Javik's fallen form, he spread medi-gel on the through-and-through wound, making sure he was using a version made to heal alien species; he was certain that the Sirta Foundation had never intended for their omni-xeno brand of the substance to be used on a Prothean, but hoped it would fit the bill.

Fortunately, the miracle medical substance seemed to work on Javik, or at least did not immediately poison him or cause immediate, massive shock, and John hoisted the alien's arm over his shoulder, and began climbing the ladder to the roof. To most, having to carry a triple-digit dead weight straight up a ladder with one hand would be extremely difficult task that would take multiple attempts, but between years in the Alliance military and the massive amount of cybernetics Cerberus had grafted into him, Shepard was able to accomplish the feat with minimal difficulty.

John reached the top of the structure just as Cortez brought his shuttle in and opened the doors. Immediately, Liara ceased firing and rushed to help him support Javik, and the three hobbled to the shuttle looking as though they were in some bizarre five-legged race. At the same time, Tali and James began blasting away husks that were climbing up the building. One managed to survive long enough to charge across the rooftop at them, and Shepard was forced to pull out his Shuriken with his free hand, bringing it into position and pulling the trigger just as the husk was a point blank range. The three rounds punched three round holes in the husk's upper lip, nose, and between its eyes, and then blew out the back of the monster's head an instant later.

Finally, they reached the shuttle, and Shepard and Liara gently lowered Javik to the ground. Turning, he reached a hand out to Tali, pulling her back onto the shuttle. Liara did the same with Vega, and as soon as they were all on board, the door slammed shut, and Cortez immediately flew off as quickly as the Kodiak's thrusters would allow. Immediately, John entered the cockpit, ordering his companions to see to Javik as he left.

"Cortez, how long until we dock with the Normandy?"

"ETA, 45 seconds, commander," the pilot said through gritted teeth as he weaved through the air, trying to avoid projectiles from pursuing enemy fliers. Shepard grimaced; small-scale stealth systems, similar to the Normandy's, had already been made standard on all Alliance Kodiaks, but they only hid heat and electronic emissions; anyone who had eyes could see them.

"Hold on, ladies, I've got your back," the intercom broadcasted Joker's familiar, cocky voice. "EDI, lock GUARDIANs on those Harvestors; clip their wings!"

Leaning down, John saw the Normandy flying perpendicular to the shuttle a long distance from them, but close enough that he could see the small discharges as the ships anti-fighter lasers opened up. Glancing at the LADAR display on the Kodiak's interface, he saw the number of red dots representing their pursuers drop like flies as they were destroyed or forced to retreat in the face of annihilation. Grinning, he patted Cortez on the shoulder, thanking him for getting his team out of their certain death scenario, and returned to the holding area of the shuttle as the Normandy came around to pick them up.

Looking over his newly expanded roster, Shepard took stock of everyone. Vega was panting, but unhurt, and seemingly ecstatic that they had just pulled off such a coup. Liara was tending to Javik's bullet wound, as the Prothean sat against the bulkhead, his face betraying no sign of pain, which greatly impressed John; such an injury would have most human soldiers in tears, or at the very least spewing curses like a sailor.

Tali was leaning against the barrier between the cockpit and the marine holding area, placing her shot gun on the clamp on her back after making small repairs to it. Walking up to his lover, he pulled the quarian into a hug, which she returned after initially freezing in surprise. The group spent the next few moments in their own small bubble of peace, relived at their escape, and exhilarated by their success; the euphoria was dragged down only by the seriousness of their package's injury.

Feeling the Kodiak land on Normandy's deck, Shepard opened the door and began runign off orders. "Liara, James, get Javik up the Doctor Chakwas," he said, referring the Normandy's doctor that they had picked up again on the Citadel.

"Uh, Loco," James spoke up, a confused look on his face. "No offense to our doctor, but I don't think she's cut out to perform surgery on a species that's been thought extinct for 50,000 years."

"That will not be an issue." Everyone turned their heads to the prothean, the source of statement, in confusion. Raising his spread out hand, Javik explained, "My people possess the ability to transfer thoughts and memories directly into another being's mind."

"Like your beacons?" John asked.

"Exactly. I will be able to give her the necessary information to heal this injury."

"Very well," John replied, and gestured for the three to exit the shuttle. Carefully, Liara and Vega lifted Javik off the floor, and began to bring him toward the elevator. Turning on his Omni-tool's communicator, he contacted the bridge, saying, "Alright Joker, we're aboard; get us out of here, and get us to Palaven now."

"Roger that, Commander; ETA, 5 hours."

Deactivating the Omni-tool, John looked up just in time to see the elevator door close. "Damn it," he muttered.

"Well," Tali sighed, having come up behind him unnoticed, "it looks like we have to use the ladders to get back up."

"It seems that way," John agreed. Then his lips twisted in a sly grin. "But at least the view will be nice."

His cheek earned him a punch on the arm, though from his girlfriend's body language, he could tell it was all in fun.

As the couple walked toward the built in ladders leading to the other floors of the ship, Shepard again brought up his Omni-tool, this time tapping into the Normandy's sensors in order to see what was going on with the space battle between Cerberus and the Reapers.

From what he could see, the two forces had beaten each other to dust; Cerberus only had 4 cruisers and 10 frigates left, while the one Capital Reaper and 8 destroyers were all that remained of the synthetic-organic hybrids. As he looked on, he saw the cruisers move into position to attack the Capital Reaper, fighters and frigate acting as sacrificial shields in an attempt to keep the cruisers out of harm as they hammered away on the leviathan's shields. Even with all their precautions, however, the Capital class ship was managing to pick off the human terrorists' cruisers. Just as it seemed the Reapers seemed to be on the cusp of victory, the last surviving cruiser fired one final Thanix round that finally broke the Reaper's kinetic barriers and cut the ship in two. With their heavy hitter gone, the destroyers were easy meat for the surviving Cerberus ships, and were soon forced to retreat. The only surviving ships left in the system besides the Normandy were the last Cerberus cruiser and 3 frigates.

Just as the Normandy went the FTL, its sensors detected the SSV St. Petersburg and its six frigates jump into the system in battle formation.

**A.N. **

**I really, REALLY apologize for how long it has taken me to get this out. Pretty much all of my stories on this site have taken this turn, all for the same reason; I start out strong, eager to put my ideas to paper, than my enthusiasm wanes as I brainstorm all new ideas for different stories or my interests shift to things completely unrelated to the site (in this cause, several strategy games from Paradox Interactive). Just know, I have NOT abandoned this or any other my stories. **

**I promise, the next chapter will be posted before Blizzard releases the next expansion for Starcraft 2. **


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